PlainCompare

State Life Score

Mississippi

Top-5% composite Life Score — grade A+, 98th percentile of the national corpus.

66.3
Life Score / 100
A+
Grade (curved)
#1
of 51 states
98%
composite percentile

Data updated August 2026

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The verdict

Mississippi is top-5% composite Life Score — #1 of 51 (66.3/100, grade A+, 98th percentile). Carried by rent at 100/100; held back most by wages at 0/100.

98th
composite percentile
#1
of 51 peers
96th
cost dimension percentile
0th
wages dimension percentile

Life Score shape · TOP · BALANCED

Mississippi at a glance

Mississippi is a TOP-band BALANCED state: rent leads at 100/100 while wages drags at 0/100 (FLOOR cost · LOW wages). According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, Mississippi ranks #1 of 51 states by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #2 of 51 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.

Where Mississippi sits among all US states

Composite Life Score vs the 50 states + DC

66 Top 2% higher than 98% of 51 US states

25–30: 1 US states (2%). Below this entry. 30–35: 2 US states (4%). Below this entry. 35–40: 4 US states (8%). Below this entry. 40–45: 6 US states (12%). Below this entry. 45–50: 10 US states (20%). Below this entry. 50–55: 12 US states (24%). Below this entry. 55–60: 10 US states (20%). Below this entry. 60–65: 4 US states (8%). Below this entry. 65–70: 2 US states (4%). This entry sits in this band. This state 25 70 every US state, bucketed by value

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US states. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source PlainCompare composite of BEA, BLS, HUD, FBI, NCES, DOL, EPA data

Dimension detail

How Mississippi scores, dimension by dimension

Score Breakdown

Cost of Living Wages Rent Safety Schools Childcare Environment

Dimension Scores

Cost of Living 98/100 (20%)
Wages 0/100 (20%)
Rent 100/100 (15%)
Safety 94/100 (15%)
Schools 26/100 (10%)
Childcare 98/100 (10%)
Environment 52/100 (10%)

Read with Mississippi

Nearest composite peers and cost poles (TOP · FLOOR/LOW).

Nebraska

ABS(composite) peer at 65.1 (Δ 1.2 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade A vs this page's TOP · BALANCED · FLOOR/LOW.

Kentucky

ABS(composite) peer at 64.1 (Δ 2.2 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade A vs this page's TOP · BALANCED · FLOOR/LOW.

Iowa

ABS(composite) peer at 63.8 (Δ 2.5 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade A vs this page's TOP · BALANCED · FLOOR/LOW.

Louisiana

ABS(composite) peer at 61.1 (Δ 5.2 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade A vs this page's TOP · BALANCED · FLOOR/LOW.

Arkansas (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 100/100 (Δ 2); cost stamp FLOOR vs this state's FLOOR.

Oklahoma (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 94/100 (Δ 4); cost stamp FLOOR vs this state's FLOOR.
State rankings → Compare states →

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Data sourced from official public datasets, current as of 2026. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainCompare