Mississippi's Capital Reaches Just Half the State: 49.4% Within 100 Miles of Jackson

By SimpleMapLab·Published 13 May 2026·Rank #37 of 50 states·↑ All 50 states

49.4% of Mississippi’s population — about 1.46 M of 2.95 M residents — lives within 100 miles of Jackson. The other 50.6% — including Gulfport — sits beyond the circle.

A 100-mile geodesic radius around the Jackson, MS state capitol overlaid on Mississippi. 49.4% of Mississippi's population lives inside the dashed ring.

49.4%

of Mississippi’s population within 100 miles of Jackson

1.46 M

residents inside the radius (of 2.95 M statewide)

41 mi

from Jackson to Mississippi’s population centroid

#37

of 50 states ranked by capital-to-population centrality

Open this radius in the map → /tools/map-radius-tool · Jackson, MS · 100 mi
The link opens the SimpleMapLab Map Radius Tool with the 100-mile circle already drawn around the Jackson capitol. Change the radius to 50, 250, or any value to compare different framings.

Why this happened

Mississippi is a "split" state by this measure: roughly half its residents live within an hour and a half of the capital, and roughly half live beyond. Jackson's 100-mile reach captures Jackson (~148K) and the surrounding counties, but stops well short of Gulfport, which sits 147 miles away. The capital-to-population-centroid distance is 41 miles — a clear signal that political and demographic weight no longer share a single point on the map.

The biggest cities inside the 100-mile radius

The top 5 most-populous places (by aggregated ZIP code population) sitting inside the 100-mile circle around Jackson. Cities are listed by total population captured by ZIP centroids in the dataset.

#	City	Population in radius
1	Jackson	147,918
2	Hattiesburg	89,086
3	Brandon	79,950
4	Meridian	57,827
5	Madison	50,443

The largest city outside the radius

Mississippi’s most-populous city outside the 100-mile circle is Gulfport, sitting 147 miles from Jackson. The aggregated population of Gulfport’s ZIP codes alone — 96,188 residents — illustrates the gap between Mississippi’s political seat and its population centre.

How Mississippi compares

The states ranked closest to Mississippi on this metric. Click any to compare the radius breakdown directly.

#36 Iowa

Des Moines · 49.8% pop. captured

#38 Montana

Helena · 45.1% pop. captured

#35 Arkansas

Little Rock · 51.4% pop. captured

#39 Tennessee

Nashville · 44.2% pop. captured

#34 Idaho

Boise · 51.8% pop. captured

Draw it yourself

Open the 100-mile circle around Jackson →

The Map Radius Tool lets you change the radius (try 50 mi for an urban-suburban question or 250 mi for “a day’s drive”), drag the centre to compare Jackson’s reach with that of Jackson, or add a second circle for a side-by-side comparison.

Methodology (brief)

We took the lat/lng of the Mississippi state capitol building (32.2988°, -90.1848°) and drew a 100-mile geodesic radius. For every ZIP code in Mississippi, we tested whether the ZIP centroid falls inside; if so, its population counts. We then divide by Mississippi’s total population to produce the percentage. The full methodology for all 50 states is on the hub page.

Suggested citation: SimpleMapLab (2026). 100 Miles Around Jackson: How Much of Mississippi Is Inside? Part of the State Capital Radius study. Retrieved from https://www.simplemaplab.com/studies/state-capital-radius/mississippi. Licensed under CC-BY 4.0.