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The driver’s license office in Jackson has moved downtown as the Mississippi Department of Public Safety prepares to shift its headquarters from the capital city to suburban Rankin County. 

The department last month announced it was closing the license office that had operated for decades next to its headquarters just off Interstate 55 at Woodrow Wilson Avenue, near the VA Medical Center.

The new office is at 430 State St., near Jackson’s main post office and a few blocks from the Capitol.

“This location provides easier access for those who live and work in the area and ensures we can continue offering vital driver services in a more convenient and accessible space within the city of Jackson,” said Bailey Martin, spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety.

Mississippi has 35 driver’s licenses offices. The new Jackson office is in a former car dealership – an all-white building with floor-to-ceiling windows that fill the space with sunlight. On Wednesday, customers sat on black benches, chatting or scrolling on their phones while waiting to be called up to get or renew a license.

Carlos Lakes, 34, from Yazoo City, said he first went to the Richland office that issues commercial driver’s licenses but couldn’t get what he needed there. He said he then went to the old office on Woodrow Wilson and saw a note on the door showing the office had moved.

“So, it’s been about two hours of running around,” said Lakes, a truck driver.

He said the customer service at the new office was good, aside from the long wait time.

Medical student Seth Holton, 22, had a similar experience. He drove in from Flora, in Madison County, and went to the Woodrow Wilson location before finding the new office. He said it was his first time getting his license renewed. 

“I think it looks nice,” Holton said of the new location. “I think it’s organized. There’s good seating. It’s pretty quick, for the most part.”

Student Marquerion Brown, 19, posed for photos with a large cardboard frame of a driver’s license in the corner of the new office. He’d just passed his driver’s test for the first time.

“I’m just lucky and thankful to get this one this time,” Brown said. He hadn’t decided where he wanted to drive first. “I got a lot of places in mind.”

The Department of Public Safety headquarters will open in Pearl within the next year, near the state’s crime lab, fire academy and emergency management agency.

Martin said the new headquarters will allow the department to have its divisions in one place – the highway patrol, bureau of investigation, bureau of narcotics, homeland security office and commercial transportation enforcement.

“As such, this move will enhance operational efficiency with other public safety partners, improve interagency collaboration, and position the department for future growth,” Martin said.

The headquarters move has been in the making for over five years. Public safety officials said the old building on Woodrow Wilson fell into disrepair after years of neglect. 

Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, was part of a group of lawmakers who proposed moving the headquarters to a different location inside Jackson. 

“I personally think that the state government should be based in the state capital,” he said.

Mississippi Today has been recognized in multiple categories of the 2025 Society of Professional Journalists’ Green Eyeshade Awards, a prestigious annual competition that recognizes the best journalism in the Southeast.

The awards honor work published in 2024 and are open to journalists and news organizations from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia.

Investigative Reporting

Mississippi Today’s Anna Wolfe won second place for her work that got five Mississippi mothers out of prison after she questioned a district attorney’s use of a nebulous state law. Click here to read the reporting.

Serious Feature Writing

Mississippi Today’s Jerry Mitchell won second place for his feature about how reporter William Bradford Huie’s false narrative about the 1955 slaying of Emmett Till “stole the story of Emmett Till from his mother and family.” Click here to read the reporting.

Public Affairs and Policy Reporting

Mississippi Today’s Sophia Paffenroth won third place for her series about Mississippi’s fight for IVF policy change. Click here to read the reporting. 

Editorial Writing

Mississippi Today’s Adam Ganucheau won third place for a series of editorials he wrote about the state Legislature’s 2024 debate about whether to expand Medicaid. Read the winning series here: Editorial 1, Editorial 2, Editorial 3.

READ MORE: The full list of 2025 Green Eyeshades winners

MARKS – In 1925, a body hung, suspended in a village square outside Lambert, Mississippi. The man, whose name has been lost to time, was the victim of a lynching – one of several hundred Black people killed at the hands of white mobs in the Mississippi Delta in the first half of the 20th century.

Local Black sharecroppers were afraid to cut the man down. But Silas Kelly wasn’t. The wealthy Black landowner took the body to his home to prepare for burial. The idea for Delta Burial Corp. was born. 

Now 100 years later, the funeral home’s mission is the same: provide dignified burials for locals in the Mississippi Delta, regardless of status and income.

Without help from nearby banks, Kelly and his Black colleagues in business and farming pooled their money to form a company. To this day, it remains a business managed entirely by Black stockholders.

Black mourners who sought a standard burial previously had to visit white funeral homes that subjected them to subpar service and inflated costs.

In an oral history, Greenville native and funeral home director Beatrice Huddleston recounted how sharecropper neighbors were often forced to tear plywood from their shacks for a makeshift coffin.

With local wages in mind, Delta Burial offered services on a sliding scale or with small monthly premiums throughout the Jim Crow era, the AIDS epidemic, floods and wars. Its leaders have provided sanctuary for civil rights organizers, hosted burial society galas and organized countless celebrations of life.

The funeral home’s longtime mortician, Woodrow “Champ” Jackson, embalmed Emmett Till’s body at his previous job – and assisted in the transport of the teenager’s body to Chicago. Jackson mentored several morticians who have passed through the Marks funeral home’s screened door.

Today, much of Delta Burial’s clientele still comes from Quitman County, along with southern Tunica County, Coahoma County and Tallahatchie County. Through the business’ inclusion in the National Mortuary program, the funeral home prepares bodies from as far as Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and even East Africa.

This month, Delta Burial Corp. celebrates its 100th year serving Mississippi Delta families. Manuel Killibrew, the corporation’s latest president, credits the firm’s longevity with “reaching out to the community” and “good service.”

A community undertaker

When his father fell ill, Killibrew assisted him on house calls to collect burial insurance. He grew accustomed to his father’s route and soon took it over. He came to appreciate the conversations in neighbors’ living rooms. Every month, he would bring his report and cash to what 55 years later would be his office.

After receiving a large insurance payout from a car accident, he bought his first two shares in the company. He later became general manager and president.

Some aspects of the business haven’t changed. He still makes house calls, visiting grieving families and discussing funeral packages. He still has to negotiate with pastors to keep their sermons and services short enough to make the reserved time at the cemetery.

While the same sales agents for casket companies and vaults still call Killibrew, they now all work for the same company. Many of his suppliers have consolidated, which means higher prices. Memphis, Tennessee, and the Mississippi towns of Canton and Batesville used to have their own casket factories.

Killibrew, who says integrity and fairness are guiding principles, welcomes regulations in the death care industry.

State law requires funeral home directors to show families the actual costs of caskets, vaults, embalming and other services and products. The directors must deposit 85% of money from prearranged funeral contracts into a trust. The money is only released to the funeral home after the service is completed.

At Delta Burial, families have been shown actual prices of products and services as long as Killibrew has led the company. 

He said customers often ask for credit so they can pay expenses over time.

“But we don’t turn anybody down,” Killibrew said. “Some bring money every month. Some don’t. But I know we are blessed. We were founded on a religious foundation.”

“You make more on one family and lose more on another. So you still hang on,” he added.

He said a majority of Delta Burial funerals cost $3,000 to $6,000, which is well below the state average of roughly $8,000. He said he has only sold a $10,000 funeral roughly four or five times in his career. 

Families are selecting cremation more than in the past for financial reasons. Even Mississippi, which has the lowest cremation rate in the country, saw a 31% increase in cremations from 2019 to 2023, according to the Mississippi State Department of Health.

In his garage, between two Mercedes-Benz hearses, Killibrew pointed to a 4-foot stack of wooden box slats. The most affordable option available for a traditional burial is for his team to assemble a wooden coffin on-site.

“But some still like the show,” he said.

Some families are willing to pay a couple hundred to a thousand extra for a horse-drawn carriage procession. Some opt to rent the Cadillac hearse, which he recently bought in Atlanta for $134,000.

The ancestors

Delta Burial leadership and staff played a discrete role in the civil rights movement. For many morticians who were already embedded in the community, activism was an extension of their service.

On Feb. 2, 1962, former Delta Burial President John Melchor was sentenced to six months in jail for organizing a boycott against white business owners. Two other nearby funeral home directors were sentenced, too. Melchor’s bond was set at $1,500, which would be roughly $16,000 today.

Melchor also hosted the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at his home in Clarksdale. The two spoke on the telephone frequently and strategized on how to register Black voters in the Delta.

“Until they are stopped, our money, our tax money, will go to the White Citizens’ Council. To be free, you and I must pay and give,” Melchor wrote in a letter to Mississippi pastors and community organizers dated Feb. 14, 1961. 

He was fundraising for legal challenges to school segregation cases and cases involving the imprisonment of civil rights activists.

Melchor’s wealth and business success were seen as a threat by his white peers. The Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, a state agency that spied on civil rights activists, kept more than a dozen files on him.

Like other Delta funeral home directors, Melchor’s business suffered as a result of his activism. The Sovereignty Commission connived with local law enforcement to jail his embalmers for operating without a license. While it was standard to leave the license at a business and not in a hearse, law enforcement still fined Melchor and his peers for the misdemeanor when they weren’t at their mortuaries.

Ginise Clement, Melchor’s niece, remembers the family’s first home, which was connected to the morgue and funeral home. She could see from the window in the dining room the caskets lined up. The smell of formaldehyde and embalming fluid would waft through the side door.

She remembers the fear she felt visiting. When she was still a child, Melchor walked her into the morgue to confront her fear.

“You have to be afraid of the live people because those are the ones that can harm you,” Clement remembers John Melchor telling her.

“Sometimes, they would,” she added.

Clement remembers the frequent death threats the family would receive over the telephone. She remembers the strange cars that would follow the family home. She remembers the harassment Melchor’s wife, Ollie Mae, received from administrators at the school where she worked.

“These people were fierce,”  Clement said of her aunt and uncle. “I would’ve been scared to death.”

A good day’s work

On Friday evening, mourners departed the funeral home’s chapel for their trucks and cars. The day’s visitation drew to a close. Inside, bouquets of flowers hugged a black casket and colorful lights cast the room in shades of purple.

Shelton Leonard, a 65-year employee with Delta Burial, shut the lid on the casket and wheeled it into a storage room. In another room was the casket with a young woman. Two services were set for the next day.

“I go out of my way to provide service for people,” Shelton said. “I think that’s what it’s about: helping people.”

As the sun set on Marks, creating pink and orange streaks in the big Delta sky, a red pickup, an ATV, a golf cart and two more cars pulled up to a corner near the funeral home. Ulysses Hentz and his brother, Phillip, gathered with neighborhood friends. 

They shared tributes to Killibrew and Delta Burial. Killibrew was a teacher for 33 years in the county public schools. He has also represented them on the Quitman County Board of Supervisors for 42 years.

For residents of Marks and Quitman County, economic development has been slow. But Delta Burial has stood as a beacon of success.

Most jobs are out of the county. FedEx has three buses that transport locals to work at its warehouse in Memphis. Others work at the prison in Tutwiler or commute to the many businesses in Southaven. 

Crenshaw Rubber Factory, an oil meter, a jean manufacturing factory and a garment mill have all closed in recent decades, taking jobs and families with them. The police department has changed locations at least three times in the last 100 years. But Delta Burial has remained in the same location. 

“It’s the oldest business in the community. Black or white. It’s a pillar of the community,” said Ulysses Hentz, whose grandfather’s funeral was recently arranged by Delta Burial.

“If you last that many years, a hundred years, in a town like Marks, you got roots in that mud.”

A federal three-judge panel ordered Mississippi to conduct special elections for 14 legislative seats this year because the court determined the Legislature diluted Black voting strength when lawmakers redrew legislative districts.

Read more

The Mississippi State Department of Health issued an alert Wednesday that cases of pertussis, or whooping cough, are climbing in the state. 

The year-to-date number of cases in Mississippi ballooned to 80 as of July 10. That compares to 49 cases in all of 2024. 

No whooping cough deaths have been reported. Ten people have been hospitalized related to whooping cough, seven of whom were children under 2 years old. 

Cases have largely been clustered in northeast Mississippi. The region accounts for 40% of cases statewide. 

The nation has also seen rising rates of whooping cough, though cases have been climbing less steeply than in Mississippi. About 15,000 whooping cough cases have been reported nationwide this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The highly contagious respiratory illness is named for the “whooping” sound people make when gasping for air after a coughing fit. It may begin like a common cold but can last for weeks or months. Babies younger than 1 year are at greatest risk for getting whooping cough, and can have severe complications that often require hospitalization. 

Whooping cough cases fell in Mississippi after the COVID-19 pandemic began, but have since rebounded. This is likely due to people now taking fewer mitigation measures, like masking and remote learning, State Epidemiologist Renia Dotson said at the state Board of Health meeting July 9. 

The majority of cases – 76% – have occurred in children. Of the 73 cases reported in people who were old enough to be vaccinated, 28 were unvaccinated. Of those 28 people, 23 were children. 

“Vaccines are the best defense against vaccine preventable diseases,” State Health Officer Dr. Dan Edney said after the State Board of Health meeting.

Mississippi has long had the highest child vaccination rates in the country. But the state’s kindergarten vaccination rates have dropped since a federal judge ruled in 2023 that parents can opt out of vaccinating their children for school on account of religious beliefs. 

The pertussis vaccination is administered in a five-dose series for children under 7 and booster doses for older children and adults. The health department recommends that pregnant women, grandparents and family or friends that may come in close contact with an infant should get booster shots to ensure they do not pass the illness to children, particularly those too young to be vaccinated. 

Immunity from pertussis vaccination wanes over time, and there is not a routine recommendation for boosters. 

State health officials also encourage vaccination against other childhood illnesses, like measles. While Mississippi has not reported any measles cases, Texas has had recent outbreaks. 

The Mississippi Health Department offers vaccinations to children and uninsured adults at county health departments. 

Correction 7/16/25: This story has been updated to reflect that the age of the seven hospitalized children is under 2 years old.

Randy Watkins returns to the Crooked Letter pod to discuss The Open, where the weather will be wet, windy and coolish at Royal Portrush. Scottie Scheffler will be the betting favorite, but the Europeans, including Rory McIlroy, definitely will have a home-course advantage. The recent Major League Draft also will be discussed.

Stream all episodes here.

Editor’s note: This Mississippi Today Ideas essay is published as part of our Brain Drain project, which seeks answers to Mississippi’s brain drain problem. To read more about the project, click here.

As homeowners know, a slow water leak is capable of causing more damage than a fast one. A burst pipe demands an immediate fix, but a leaky pipe can drip indefinitely. Perhaps water seeps out undetected, or repairs get put off in favor of more urgent tasks.

The cost of delay, measured in days or weeks, is minimal, but over years, it can be catastrophic. First it shows up in the form of higher water bills. Give it long enough, though, it can undermine the structural integrity of the house. 

Mississippi has been slowly leaking population for a long time. Over the past decade, the state has lost an average of 5,000 residents per year. The primary cause is outmigration to other states, particularly among recent college graduates – a problem known as brain drain. But rising mortality rates and declining birth rates have also taken a toll on the state’s ability to replenish its population, especially since the pandemic. 

In any given year, the losses amount to a small fraction of Mississippi’s nearly three million residents. Spread throughout the state, the changes can be difficult to notice in everyday life. Over time, however, the trickle has caused a flood. 

Since 2010, 80,000 more people have moved out of Mississippi than have moved in. Put together, they would make up the second-largest city in the state. If such a city existed, it would be one of the best-educated places in the country: four-year college graduates account for all of the net outmigration among people ages 22 to 50. 

As a state, we need to take a close look at the causes and consequences of our population decline. We must focus particular attention on the brain drain of four-year college graduates, which represents the single greatest challenge for the state’s future. It shapes the lives and livelihoods of every Mississippian, no matter whether they went to college or not.

The brain drain levies a hidden tax on people who remain in Mississippi by choice or necessity. The departure of college graduates reduces average income and job openings for all workers, regardless of their level of education. A smaller population – one deprived of many of its top earners – means all residents must pay higher taxes and utility rates to maintain infrastructure and public services. And a significant portion of every dollar invested in public education, the state’s largest budgetary expense, is converted into a subsidy to the states where Mississippi’s graduates end up working.

The brain drain has begun to erode the foundation of the state’s economy and communities, setting off a cascade of challenges that drives even more people to leave.

Existing businesses struggle to retain talented employees who can earn more money elsewhere, and new businesses choose not to invest when the pool of skilled workers is shrinking. Vacant houses and storefronts blight once-vibrant neighborhoods and downtowns, eating away at property values and family savings. Schools and churches that served as community pillars for generations close or consolidate. This is not the case in every part of the state, but it is a story familiar to many Mississippians.

That’s why Working Together Mississippi, a nonprofit organization comprising hundreds of community-based institutions across the state, is relaunching Rethink Mississippi as an initiative to find solutions to the state’s brain drain and population decline.

I started Rethink Mississippi a decade ago as a website featuring policy analysis and commentary written by young Mississippians for young Mississippians. Two things quickly became obvious: first, Mississippians of all backgrounds share a love for their state that is rare in an era of rootlessness and polarization; and second, the question that dominated all others was whether Mississippi could offer young people enough opportunity to keep them in the state. For too many, the answer has been no. 

I believe that the solutions to the brain drain can be found in the enduring attachment that binds Mississippians to their home state. Even if they have moved far away, Mississippi is never far from their minds or their mouths. Therefore, the best way to find out how to keep people in Mississippi – or how to bring them back – is to ask them.

Through a partnership with Mississippi Today and the Center for Population Studies at the University of Mississippi, we have developed a survey to do just that. We invite you to spend a few minutes taking it. Your insight is valuable, no matter where you are from or where you live now.

A leak will not fix itself. We must stop it at the source. The work might be difficult, but it is necessary. We are too invested in our home to let it wash away.

Jake McGraw leads the Rethink Mississippi initiative at Working Together Mississippi, a nonpartisan civic engagement organization of nonprofits and religious institutions across the state. He began researching and writing about the brain drain when he moved back to Mississippi more than a decade ago. A native of Oxford, he studied public policy and economics at the University of Mississippi and economic history at Oxford University. You can reach him at j.mcgraw@workingtogetherms.org. 

Mississippi is losing too many residents, and too few people are doing anything about it.

So Mississippi Today, in partnership with Rethink Mississippi (an initiative sponsored by the nonprofit Working Together Mississippi) and the University of Mississippi Center for Population Studies, has launched the state’s first-ever scientific study dedicated to understanding Mississippi’s brain drain crisis — and what ideas could help reverse it.

Whether you’ve stayed, left, or considered leaving, we want to hear from you. If you’ve moved to Mississippi from elsewhere, or even if you’ve never lived in Mississippi, your input is valuable. Brain drain in Mississippi affects all of us, and we believe hearing from people of any and all backgrounds and perspectives can only help us better grapple with the problems and develop some solutions.

The short survey asks everyone about the factors that influenced their decision of where to live, whether that’s in Mississippi or not. It follows with tailored discussion questions based on where you’re from and where you live now. We ask you to reflect on what has pulled you away or what has kept you rooted here, as well as the potential changes that could improve the chances that you live in the state in the future. We purposefully left plenty of room for you to share your own thoughts with us.

Over the next few weeks and months, we will spend dedicated time and energy with the results of the survey. We’ll dispatch journalists at Mississippi Today to dive deeply into issues that matter most to you, and we’ll work closely with our expert partners to dissect and share findings — all with potential solutions to the crisis at top of mind.

All of the stories, analyses and essays related to this work will be published on our new page at Mississippi Today called Brain Drain. Click here to access and bookmark the page.

We’ve also published a comprehensive list of answers to frequently asked questions about the problem, the data and potential solutions.

READ MORE: FAQ: The ‘Brain Drain’ crisis in Mississippi

Importantly, we take very seriously the protection of your personal information. We want you to share your thoughts as honestly as possible. Your responses will remain completely anonymous to us and our partners unless you choose to include your name and contact information. But please tell us how to reach you if you are open to talking with us for future articles or research, or if you want to stay in touch through our email list. Even if you opt into sharing your personal information with us, we will protect it closely and never publish it without your permission.

In addition to powering in-depth reporting and analysis, we believe this study and its surrounding work will start community conversations. You can expect us to host public events centered around this project, and we want everyone — from everyday Mississippians to policymakers and public officials — to benefit from this data and understanding.

Take the survey and share your story here. And if you found it helpful or interesting, please share it with your networks! We want to hear from as many past, present, and (hopefully) future Mississippians as we can.

Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. I can be reached at adam@mississippitoday.org.

MORE: Click here to take the Brain Drain survey

Mississippi Today, in partnership with Rethink Mississippi (an initiative sponsored by the nonprofit Working Together Mississippi) and the University of Mississippi Center for Population Studies, has launched a project focused on the state’s brain drain crisis.

The core of the project is the state’s first-ever scientific study dedicated to understanding Mississippi’s brain drain crisis — and what ideas could help reverse it.

Researcher and policy analyst Jake McGraw of Rethink Mississippi compiled a list of frequently asked questions about the crisis, what the available data shows about it and potential solutions to it.

Click on any question below to read the answer. Click the “Jump to the top” link anywhere in the document to return to this list of questions.

What is brain drain?
Why is brain drain a problem?
How many people is Mississippi losing? 
How does migration vary by education?
How does migration vary by age, race, and sex? 
What parts of the state are losing the most people? What places are growing?
Where do Mississippians go? Where do newcomers move from? 
Is the problem that too many Mississippians leave or too few people move in? 
How does Mississippi compare to other states? 
What is the economic cost of the brain drain?
What are the political implications?
What causes the brain drain? Is it mostly about jobs?  
How much is rural depopulation to blame? 
What role do Jackson’s struggles play?
Should we only care about losing college graduates? 
Does the departure of out-of-state college students add to the brain drain? 
What is the role of foreign immigration?
Where are the bright spots? 
Where does all of this data come from? 
What can we do to stop the brain drain?
Do you have questions that weren’t included? 

What is brain drain?

Brain drain refers to the departure of educated or skilled workers from an area, often in pursuit of higher-paying jobs or better living conditions. It is a pithy term for what economists call human capital flight. Brain drain can be measured according to gross brain drain, the share of educated residents born in the state who leave, and net brain drain, the relative outflow and inflow of educated residents. Unless otherwise specified, we will use the term brain drain to refer to net brain drain, which is the more important metric for the state’s economy and well-being. 

Brain drain also frequently shows up in connection with two related concepts: net outmigration and population loss.

Net outmigration occurs when the total number of people leaving an area exceeds the number of people moving in. Net migration includes both domestic migration, when native-born Americans move within the U.S., and international migration, when people move from and to foreign countries. In practice, places with net outmigration typically also suffer from a brain drain, because people with higher education tend to be more mobile than people without college degrees. 

Population loss is a decline in the total number of residents living in an area. Population change is calculated by a simple formula: net migration + natural change (births minus deaths.) A place experiencing net outmigration can still sustain a growing population if its birth rate is high enough to offset its deaths and departures. However, state and national birth rates have been sliding downward for decades, so population growth increasingly depends on positive net migration.

Jump to the top.

Why is brain drain a problem?

Brain drain is a vicious cycle that slows a place’s economy, shrinks its tax base, and frays its social fabric. When an area’s workforce and customer base shrinks, existing businesses lose talent and revenue, and new businesses do not open. Infrastructure and public services deteriorate as fewer — and less affluent — taxpayers shoulder the cost of maintaining them. Vacant houses and storefronts blight once-vibrant neighborhoods, inviting crime and lowering property values. Schools close or consolidate, and religious congregations and civic organizations die out. Each wave of departures leaves less reason for others to stay, perpetuating the downward spiral.

Brain drain widens regional, socioeconomic, and political divides. Americans have the freedom to move anywhere in the country, and many “vote with their feet” by leaving places that offer less opportunity, fewer amenities and worse quality of life than they can find elsewhere. But even though all Americans are free to move, moving is not free. High costs and uncertain job prospects often lock poorer, less educated and older residents in struggling places. The people most likely to leave are wealthier, more educated and younger. Brain drain widens these disparities: the people who can leave are often rewarded with higher salaries and upward mobility, while people who are stuck in declining areas struggle to hang on. It also amplifies the inequality between regions. Areas with economic and social advantages pull talent and resources away from places like Mississippi that are, literally, left behind. The gap between them is increasingly filled with political polarization and cultural resentment. 

Brain drain is a subsidy paid to other states. Mississippi taxpayers invest approximately $170,000 in the education of a child who passes through the state’s K-12 and public university system. When a graduate leaves to take a job elsewhere, the return on that investment is reaped by their new state. Mississippi imports far fewer graduates from other states than it exports. As a result, the taxpayers of the poorest state in America are subsidizing the economies and education systems of wealthier states, while Mississippi is left with fewer resources to invest in its communities and its next generation. 

Jump to the top.

How many people is Mississippi losing? 

From 2010 to 2024, 80,000 more residents left the state than moved in, according to Census Bureau estimates. Put together, the net loss is greater than the population of Gulfport, the state’s second-largest city. Mississippi had the sixth-worst net migration rate in the country during that time. 

Net outmigration accelerated from 2010 to 2020, and it overtook the natural growth of the population starting in 2014. However, the Covid-19 pandemic put the brakes on the exodus. In the three years prior to 2020, Mississippi lost an average of 12,000 movers per year. In the three years from 2022 to 2024, 5,000 more people moved into Mississippi than moved away — the first period of inbound migration since the 1990s. Domestic movers still left Mississippi on balance, but their losses were offset by an increase in foreign immigration.

Despite the uptick in net migration, Mississippi’s total population has fallen faster since the pandemic. The state’s birth rate has declined in line with national trends, while deaths from Covid and other causes have spiked since 2020. In the past four years, 16,000 more Mississippians have died than been born. 

As a result, Mississippi’s 2024 population stood at 2,943,045 — down nearly 45,000 from its peak in 2014. The state ranks 49th in population change during the past decade, above only West Virginia. Mississippi now has almost 27,000 fewer residents than it did in the 2010 Census.

Jump to the top.

How does migration vary by education?

As we laid out before, there are two ways to define brain drain: gross brain drain, which compares the education levels of leavers and stayers, and net brain drain, which compares the education levels of leavers and newcomers. Of the two, net brain drain is the more important metric, but gross brain drain is the one we feel more, since it is easier to notice the loss of someone who moved away than someone who never moved in.

Gross Brain Drain: Among Mississippi natives ages 22 to 50, almost half of all four-year graduates have left the state, compared to just 30% without a four-year degree. This includes graduates of community colleges, who stay home at the same rate as Mississippians without any postsecondary education.

Net Brain Drain: For every Mississippian without a four-year degree who moves away, a person of a similar educational level moves in. But only two university graduates arrive for every three from Mississippi who leave, resulting in a net loss of 57,000 four-year graduates currently living in other states. 

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How does migration vary by age, race, and sex? 

Age: Every age group younger than 50 departs Mississippi in greater numbers than they arrive. Only when approaching retirement age are people more likely to move to Mississippi than leave. Losses are greatest in the years when people are beginning their careers. From 2010 to 2020, Mississippi lost one-tenth of its 25-to-34-year-old population – about 40,000 people – through net outmigration. 

Race: Net migration among Black and white people follows a similar age pattern. However, Black people move away at higher rates in their 20s and 30s, but they are more likely to move back in their 70s. Mississippi’s population of other racial groups is too small to generate reliable estimates by age. 

Sex: Both men and women move in line with the overall age pattern, but net outmigration is higher among men in their prime working years. 

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What parts of the state are losing the most people? What places are growing?

Nearly every part of the state is suffering from outmigration and brain drain. Between 2010 and 2020, 80% of the state’s 82 counties lost more people than they gained, including moves made inside the state and outside of it. Nationally, roughly half of counties were net exporters of population. 

Most of Mississippi’s shrinking counties are shrinking rapidly, while most of its growing counties are growing slowly. From 2010 to 2020, more than half of Mississippi’s counties ranked in the bottom 20% nationally in net migration rate (net migrants as a share of population). Only five counties ranked in the top 20%. 

There are patterns to which counties tend to lose or attract movers. Rural counties with low per capita income and low education rates lost the most people, while growth was concentrated in more affluent and educated places: suburban areas, university towns, and the Coast. Most of their growth came from people who moved from other parts of Mississippi — a brain drain within the state. 

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Where do Mississippians go? Where do newcomers move from? 

When Mississippians leave, they typically relocate to large metropolitan areas that are within driving distance of home. According to address changes in IRS tax filings from 2012 to 2022, the top destinations for people leaving Mississippi are Houston, Dallas, Memphis, Atlanta and New Orleans. Newcomers are most likely to move to Mississippi from Memphis, New Orleans, Mobile, Baton Rouge and Atlanta. 

In terms of net migration, Mississippi has added the most residents from Memphis, New Orleans, Mobile, Baton Rouge and Birmingham, while it has lost the most residents to Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta, Nashville and Orlando.

On a state level, Tennessee and Texas have drawn the most Mississippians, followed by Louisiana, Alabama and Florida. People who move to Mississippi tend to come from the same five states, in a slightly different order. Tennessee and Louisiana are the top two states of origin, followed by Texas, Alabama and Florida. 

Even though the same states appear at the top of both lists, net migration varies widely by state. In general, Mississippi has a negative migration rate with states that are attracting newcomers from other parts of the country, while it has a positive migration rate with states that are losing residents to other parts of the country. 

Texas added the most residents in exchange with Mississippi: 30,000 net movers between 2012 and 2022, which is triple the amount gained by Georgia, the number two state. Alabama, Florida and Tennessee round out the top five. 

Mississippi netted the most residents from Louisiana, followed by Illinois, New York, California and Michigan – all states that, like Mississippi, have suffered from domestic net outmigration. 

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Is the problem that too many Mississippians leave or too few people move in? 

Both, but, on balance, Mississippi does a worse job of attracting new residents than retaining current residents. For every 100 people alive today who were born in Mississippi, 36 now live in another state. Mississippi’s retention rate ranks in the middle nationally, 28th out of 50, but it is lowest in the Southeast, where people are less likely to leave their home state than in other regions. 

However, for every 100 people born in Mississippi, only 24 people move in from other states. Another two move in from abroad. The in-migration rate ranks 46th in the country.

The population of people alive today who were born in Mississippi is 3.27 million, 10% larger than the state’s current population. Louisiana is the only other Southern state that is home to fewer people than were born in the state. 

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How does Mississippi compare to other states? 

Mississippi ranks near the bottom nationally on brain drain, net migration and population change. 

Net migration of four-year college graduates, ages 22 to 50: 47th

Total net migration since 2010: 45th

Population change since 2010: 48th

Louisiana is the only other state in the country to rank 45th or worse in all three categories. It makes sense that Mississippi would be in league with its neighbor to the southwest, but Louisiana also has unique economic and ecological challenges. Within the Southeastern region, Mississippi and Louisiana are extreme outliers. 

The South is the country’s fastest-growing region, and every other state in the region has experienced net in-migration, brain gain and population growth. This includes Arkansas and Alabama, the two states that are most similar to Mississippi in economics, geography and history. Arkansas and Alabama are growing slowly by regional standards, but they sit around the midpoint in national rankings.

Arkansas and Alabama share many of the characteristics that are blamed for Mississippi’s brain drain. They are both poorer and less-educated than the Southern average, and they get labeled with many of the same negative stereotypes. They are the South’s most rural states behind Mississippi, and they do not have a major urban magnet like Dallas, Atlanta or Nashville. Yet Arkansas and Alabama have steadily grown their population by attracting and retaining residents, including university graduates. Since 2020, both have seen a surge of newcomers. 

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What is the economic cost of the brain drain?

Mississippi’s state economist published a study in 2022 that estimated that the brain drain of university graduates costs the state’s economy an average of $181 million per year. The model was based on retaining 1,200 more four-year graduates per year from 2023-2032 earning an average of $36,569. The study only calculated the additional economic benefits on a yearly basis, but we can extend it over the entire decade. If Mississippi retained 1,200 additional graduates per year for 10 years, and they all stayed in the state so that the state’s population with a bachelor’s degree increased by 12,000 by the end of the decade, then the state economy would grow by a total of $8 billion. (The impact grows exponentially, as previous cohorts continue to receive a paycheck, combined with the additional earnings from each year’s new influx of graduates.) An extra $8 billion would double Mississippi’s economic growth rate from the most recent decade. Those gains would also benefit workers without a degree: the state economist’s model predicts that the 1,200 additional four-year graduates would create almost 1,200 jobs elsewhere in the economy. 

For a real-world example of how this could play out, compare Mississippi’s economy to Arkansas’ economy. In 2010, Mississippi and Arkansas were roughly equal in population and economic output. Mississippi had 45,000 more people and its GDP was $7 billion smaller. Between 2010 and 2024, Arkansas added 200,000 more residents than Mississippi and attracted 42,000 more four-year graduates. By the end of 2024, Arkansas’s economy was $31 billion larger than Mississippi’s — tripling Mississippi’s growth rate. 

We can also think about the brain drain in terms of a loss on the investment made by taxpayers. State and local taxpayers contribute $8,494 per year toward the education of every public K-12 student and $14,662 for every public university student. These numbers change every year — they’ve risen about 25% since 2000 after accounting for inflation — but, as a crude estimate, a Mississippi student who completes 17 years of education in public schools and universities will receive about $170,000 in direct educational investment from their fellow Mississippians. This doesn’t include other indirect investments that benefit kids as well as adults: infrastructure, healthcare, police, firefighters, etc. 

Mississippi residents pay an average of 9% of their annual income in state and local taxes, which means that a university graduate would need to earn almost $1.9 million in the state simply to repay the up-front investment. At the median income for university graduates, that would take 36 years. The state auditor’s office reported in 2022 that 40% of in-state graduates are not employed within the state within five years of finishing their degree. Since Mississippi only attracts two graduates from other states for every three it loses, a large portion of the state’s education funding turns into a subsidy to other states. As of 2023, the brain drain had cost Mississippi 57,000 four-year graduates between ages 22 to 50 who were born in the state. Collectively, they represent approximately $7 billion in educational expenditures after inflation.

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What are the political implications?

Population loss most directly influences political representation through congressional reapportionment, which takes place after the U.S. Census every 10 years. In 2000, Mississippi’s congressional delegation shrunk from five to four because it had grown more slowly than other states. If current trends hold, Mississippi is likely to retain its fourth seat in 2030, but it will be in jeopardy by the time the 2040 Census comes around.  

Population changes have influenced the redrawing of congressional maps within the state. The 2nd District, held by Democrat Bennie Thompson, had to be expanded after the 2020 Census because it lost 9% of its population in the preceding decade. The 2nd District now covers one-third of the state’s land area, and it will continue to grow geographically as long as the Delta region and Hinds County lose population. It’s likely that would mean adding more white voters to the state’s only majority-Black district, which could trigger a Voting Rights Act challenge. It could also alter the demographics of the majority-white 1st or 3rd Districts. 

Similarly, the latest round of legislative redistricting has set off a fierce series of political and legal battles that is still ongoing. After Republican lawmakers approved new district maps on party-line votes, lawsuits brought on behalf of Black voters have forced 15 districts to be redrawn and their seats contested in special elections this year. In general, population changes in recent decades have shifted legislative power away from rural Mississippi and the city of Jackson and toward suburban areas and the Coast. 

As for statewide elections, the effect of population changes exists as a hypothetical: would Mississippi elect different candidates if fewer people were leaving? Since 2010, net domestic outmigration has cost Mississippi at least 100,000 citizens who would have been of voting age by the state elections in 2023. It would not have swung the outcomes of many races, since most of Mississippi’s recent elections have been decided by wide margins. But it could have had an impact on the 2023 race for governor, for instance, which incumbent Republican Tate Reeves won over Democrat Brandon Presley by fewer than 27,000 votes. It’s impossible to say whether an extra 100,000 eligible voters would have swayed the final result, but it’s clear that the political ripple effects will only get larger if Mississippi continues to lose more people. 

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What causes the brain drain? Is it mostly about jobs?  

People choose where to live based on a variety of individual factors, but every person of working age has to take job opportunities into account. Some people move to maximize their income, some move to get a job they love, and others move to a place they want to live where they can find a job that pays the bills. 

There is no doubt that Mississippi’s economy is a major driver of the brain drain. Jobs often pay less than equivalent positions in other states, even after accounting for cost of living differences. According to the most recent American Community Survey data, Mississippians with bachelor’s degrees earn 23% less than the national average. Mississippians with graduate degrees earn 27% less than their counterparts. The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that Mississippi’s cost of living is 13% cheaper than the national average.

People born in Mississippi who leave the state are rewarded with higher incomes at every level of education, but moving is especially lucrative for four-year graduates, who make almost $19,000 more than graduates who stay.

Mississippi also has fewer jobs available in fields that require a bachelor’s degree or specialized training. Roughly one-third of Mississippi natives in their 20s and 30s have completed a four-year degree, but Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce estimates that just 24% of jobs in Mississippi meet their qualifications, the lowest in the country. They project that share to stay level through 2031.

In-state job opportunities vary widely according to industry. In general, Mississippians who work in education and healthcare are most likely to stay, while those in STEM fields are the most likely to leave. However, Mississippi attracts fewer workers than it loses in each of the 15 most common professions for people born in the state. Losses are greatest in computer science and IT. For every 10 Mississippi natives currently working in tech, eight have left the state, and only three people have moved in from other places. As a result, the state’s tech workforce is less than half as large as it would have been without the brain drain.  

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How much is rural depopulation to blame? 

The longstanding migration pattern has been for people to move from rural areas and small towns to big cities and suburban areas. This trend places Mississippi at a structural disadvantage, since Mississippi has the fourth-most rural population in the country and no large metropolitan area.

However, population density does not tell the whole story. Counties in Mississippi have underperformed counties of similar sizes across the board. Between 2010 and 2020, Mississippi counties under 25,000 people lost movers at more than twice the national average, and Mississippi counties between 25,000 and 50,000 people had a net outmigration rate of 6%, compared to flat migration nationally. Mississippi’s larger counties attracted more people than they lost, but at slower rates than peer counties outside the state.  

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What role do Jackson’s struggles play?

Most states have been able to offset their rural depopulation through the growth of their metropolitan areas. The Jackson region accounts for one-fifth of the state’s population and is Mississippi’s only metro area among the 100 largest in the country (it ranked 95th in 2024, with 606,000 residents). But in contrast with many fast-growing midsized Sunbelt cities, the Jackson area is losing population.

The city of Jackson has lost almost one-third of its population since 1980, with no sign of leveling off. From 2020 to 2024, Jackson lost more than 12,000 residents, the largest per capita drop among the 324 cities with more than 100,000 residents.  

Historically, the surrounding suburbs have absorbed most of Jackson’s outmigration. Since 1980, their population has grown by nearly 80% and the metropolitan area has added 140,000 residents. However, in recent years, the growth in the suburbs has also tapered off. Over the past four years, 14,500 more people have left the Jackson metro area than moved in, the fifth-worst net migration rate of any metro area with at least 500,000 people. From July 2023 to June 2024, the most recent year available, the Jackson region ranked last in the country, losing twice times as many people per capita as any other major metropolitan area.

At the same time, people have flocked to similarly-sized regions in neighboring states. Huntsville, Chattanooga and Northwest Arkansas are growing rapidly by attracting newcomers, including many young professionals who have left expensive coastal cities after the pandemic. 

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Should we only care about losing college graduates? 

Absolutely not. There is a tendency for people talking about the brain drain to say the state is losing its “best and brightest.” That’s demonstrably false. Many of Mississippi’s most talented and productive people did not have the interest or the opportunity to get a four-year college degree. And it is not desirable for Mississippi to only retain college grads while losing everyone else. Mississippi should create more opportunities for college graduates while also investing in career pathways that do not require a bachelor’s degree. 

There are two reasons why four-year graduates deserve special attention. First, they are the only people who are leaving the state. About 70% of Mississippians with a high school diploma or associate’s degree stay in the state, but only about half of Mississippians with bachelor’s degrees stick around. Furthermore, Mississippi attracts a new resident with a high school or community college education for every one it loses, but only two four-year graduates move in for every three who leave. To solve the problem of outmigration and population loss, we must focus on where the problem lies. 

Second, Mississippi taxpayers invest more in the education of university graduates than people who complete fewer years of schooling, and university graduates have higher average earnings when they enter the workforce. When they leave, it means that the people who received the most benefit from taxpayers, and who would contribute the most in state taxes, do not repay the investment that was made in them. Therefore, Mississippians who received less state funding and who tend to earn lower incomes are forced to shoulder more of the burden for the cost of education, infrastructure and public services.

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Does the departure of out-of-state college students add to the brain drain? 

It is a common fallacy that the brain drain is inflated by out-of-state students after they graduate from college in Mississippi. Currently, almost two in five students at Mississippi’s public universities came from outside the state. That’s 31,000 potential graduates who could leave the state within a few years. 

However, they will not add to the state’s brain drain — they will reduce it. Even if the vast majority leave, the few who stay will have a positive effect on the state’s migration rate. Those who leave will have no net effect, since they were counted as newcomers when they arrived in the state. 

It is theoretically possible that out-of-state graduates could distort a single year’s migration data if the number who left after graduation was larger than the number who arrived as freshmen. That is one reason most of the data presented above goes back at least 10 years or more. It is also why we have looked at where people were born, not just where they attended college, when quantifying the net loss of four-year graduates. Then there is the fact that the number of out-of-state students has grown almost every year since 2010. Brain drain is not statistical noise. It is a persistent trend. 

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What is the role of foreign immigration?

Foreign-born immigrants account for a tiny share of Mississippi’s overall population, but they have helped offset more than one-third of the outmigration of U.S.-born residents from the state since 2010. In that period, Mississippi has added approximately 41,000 new residents from overseas while losing 120,000 people born in the country. The state’s immigrant population has more than doubled over that time, yet Mississippi’s international immigration rate still ranks fourth-lowest in the country.

In total, 2.5% of Mississippi’s population — about 75,000 people — were born outside the U.S., the third-lowest share in the country. To put it in perspective, the city of Memphis (population 618,000) has roughly the same number of immigrants as the entire state of Mississippi. Arkansas’s foreign-born population is more than twice as large as Mississippi’s.

About half of Mississippi’s immigrants have come from Latin America, one-third from Asia, and one-tenth from Europe. Immigrants in Mississippi are more likely to be naturalized citizens than undocumented. They are also more likely to hold a four-year degree than the U.S.-born population, and they are twice as likely to start their own business. 

However, the Trump Administration’s efforts to curtail immigration will likely reduce the number of people moving to Mississippi from other countries. That will send Mississippi’s population into faster decline and increase the importance of stopping Mississippi’s domestic brain drain. 

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Where are the bright spots? 

Despite Mississippi’s challenges, there are reasons for optimism. 

First, Mississippi has always been a wellspring of talent, and thanks to improvements in the state’s education system, it is being developed better than ever. In recent years, the “Mississippi Miracle” in elementary reading scores has garnered widespread attention from the press and policymakers. Less heralded, but equally important, are the strides made by the state’s institutions of higher learning. In 2020, Mississippi’s colleges and universities ranked 29th nationally in the number of bachelor’s degrees granted per capita — second-most in the South, behind only Alabama. Mississippi made the highest jump of any state in the country over the preceding decade: up 14 spots, from 43rd in 2010. This occurred despite a decline in the number of in-state students, a product of falling birth rates and high outmigration among young families. Mississippi’s universities have become magnets for out-of-state students by offering quality academic programs, vibrant campus life and affordable tuition. They have proven that people are willing to move to Mississippi, and businesses and policymakers should work hard to keep them. 

Second, Mississippi is located in the middle of the fastest-growing region in the country, and it has many of the same assets as other Southern states that are drawing people from around the country. Chief among them is affordable housing. Mississippi has the second-lowest home prices in the country, according to Zillow. As Sunbelt metropolises like Atlanta and Austin have swelled with newcomers, their housing costs have surged. The pandemic accelerated migration away from expensive urban areas toward midsized cities, suburbs, and college towns where each dollar goes farther. As long as these trends continue, many communities in Mississippi have the opportunity to become attractive destinations for newcomers and returning expats. 

A third advantage is the enduring attachment that Mississippians carry with them, even if they have lived outside the state longer than they lived in it. More than 1 million people born in Mississippi now live in other states, often within a few hours of home. If just 1% moved back each year, the state could reverse its net outmigration from the past decade. Many already entertain the prospect of moving back someday, as evidenced by the numbers who return in retirement. They could be drawn back earlier if they felt assured that they would not have to sacrifice their careers or quality of life to do so. If they see signs of progress, the desire to contribute to the state they love will be a powerful force calling them home. 

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Where does all of this data come from? 

The Census Bureau provides the most comprehensive data on migration and population change. The Census Bureau publishes annual state and local population estimates, covering the 12 months from July 1 to June 30 each year. The most recent estimates are from 2024 (July 1, 2023-June 30, 2024). The state population changes include annual estimates of births, deaths, domestic migration, and international migration.

The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) collects data each year on a variety of social and economic characteristics from a representative sample of Americans. The ACS data provides detailed demographic information about people who have moved into and out of Mississippi. 

The Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS), housed at the University of Minnesota, allows for customized analysis of Census data to look at, for example, the age and education level of Mississippi natives who now live in another state. The University of Wisconsin’s Applied Population Laboratory also provides detailed county-level demographic breakouts of net migration patterns from 1950 to 2020.

The IRS releases statistics on tax filers who have moved between states each year. The tax data includes the age range and income earned in the year of the move. It does not rely on modeling, thus it is more precise than Census estimates (in fact, the Census estimates are partially based on IRS data), but it excludes people who did not file a tax return. 

On the state level, Mississippi’s Longitudinal Data System connects administrative data from the state’s public K-12 schools, community colleges, and universities with employment data from the Mississippi Department of Economic Security. It does not track people who leave the state, but it does record the share of graduates who are employed in Mississippi. 

There are other experimental sources that provide specialized data. For example, recent migration studies have cited LinkedIn profiles, U.S. Postal Service change-of-address requests, and credit reports. Moving companies and real estate firms also periodically publish data on customers that have made interstate moves. Analytics firms like Placer.AI sell proprietary tools that estimate migration using large consumer datasets, for example cell phone locations. 

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What can we do to stop the brain drain?

The available data give us a good indication of how many people are leaving, who they are, and where they are going. They do not, however, tell us why, or what we can do about it. To answer that question, we need your help.

Mississippi Today, the University of Mississippi’s Center for Population Studies, and Working Together Mississippi’s Rethink Mississippi initiative have partnered to create a survey to identify the most important things people look for when they choose where to live — whether that’s in Mississippi or somewhere else. The survey is open to anyone over 18, no matter where you’re from or where you live now. Once we know the factors that people consider when leaving or staying, we can develop strategies to help Mississippi compete with other places. If you have good ideas, the survey also gives you the opportunity to share them.

Once we have received enough responses, we will publish the results of the survey. They will inform Mississippi Today’s ongoing reporting on the causes, consequences and solutions to Mississippi’s brain drain crisis.

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Do you have questions that weren’t included?

Tell us about them, and we’ll do our best to answer them. You may email Jake McGraw at j.mcgraw@workingtogetherms.org or Adam Ganucheau at adam@mississippitoday.org.

You can also take our survey, where you can share your personal story of leaving Mississippi or staying home.

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U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate said he’s putting his decision on hold over whether to approve JXN Water’s proposed rate increase until after he finds out what happened with roughly $90 million from a settlement with Siemens.

In 2020, the city of Jackson settled its lawsuit with the German company over years of faulty metering for water services. While about a third of the $90 million went to legal fees, city officials couldn’t immediately say where the rest of those funds went during a status conference Monday.

City Attorney Drew Martin said he was working to comply with a subpoena Wingate issued last week looking for an accounting of the settlement dollars, adding that he would have those details within a day or two. While he couldn’t say for sure where the money went, Martin said the city spent about $50 million within a few months after the settlement, and that there was $8 million remaining as of 2022.

Ted Henifin, who runs JXN Water and first proposed the rate increase in February, said the increase would still be necessary even if the utility received all the money from the Siemens settlement. He said the utility’s day-to-day management is operating at a deficit, and that the $60 million from the settlement — what Jackson received after paying its lawyers — would only cover losses for the next two years.

Henifin added that he’s asking the federal government to move around its funding to the city so he can spend more of it on operations and management. Without a boost to JXN Water’s finances, he said the utility would have to stop paying its contractors.

Wingate inquired about the settlement money during a two-day status conference last month. Henifin told the judge he had no idea what the city did with the funds. Wingate explained Monday that he wanted to make sure he was aware of all possible funding for JXN Water before approving a second rate increase in as many years.

It’s unclear how soon he’ll decide. In addition to Jackson officials, Wingate issued the subpoena on July 9 to the state and federal government as well as four different law firms. The subpoena gives the parties 30 days to produce any information on where the settlement funds went.

The judge also brought up the city’s history with shutting off nonpaying customers. Martin explained that the city, under then Mayor Tony Yarber, agreed to pause shutoffs for customers who had issues with Siemens’ water meters. Jackson prepared to bring back shutoffs in 2019, he said, but put them on hold again during the COVID-19 pandemic.