Copiah County, Mississippi Eviction Risk: Low

Copiah County carries a 4.6/10 Moderate eviction-risk score, placing it 12th of 82 Mississippi eviction laws counties, meaning only 11 counties in the state carry higher risk and 70 are more landlord-friendly. For landlords and investors sizing up this market, that rank signals a county sitting in the higher-risk third of Mississippi eviction laws, where tenant-side pressures run meaningfully above the state midpoint. With a 29% poverty rate and an average rent of $823, a sizable share of the renter base faces genuine affordability strain, which tends to elevate the frequency of late payments and the likelihood of having to pursue a formal eviction.

The county covers 5 incorporated places with a combined population of roughly 11,161. Individual city scores range from 4.4 to 4.7, a narrow band that suggests broadly similar operating conditions across the county rather than one dramatically safer pocket. A 37.1% renter share means more than a third of occupied households are potential tenants, giving the rental market real depth, but that same concentration of renters under a high-poverty backdrop calls for disciplined tenant screening on every unit.

The cities inside Copiah County

The highest-risk city is Hazlehurst, scoring 4.7/10, with a population of 3,520. As the county seat, Hazlehurst is the largest rental market in the county after Crystal Springs, but its score sits at the top of the local range and should be weighted accordingly when underwriting vacancy and collection risk. Crystal Springs, the most populous city at 4,752 residents, scores 4.6/10, matching the county average and representing the broadest concentration of rental units in Copiah County.

Risk drops modestly moving toward smaller communities. Beauregard scores 4.5/10, while Wesson and Georgetown both come in at 4.4/10, the most landlord-favorable reading in the county. The difference between the high and low ends, 4.4 to 4.7, is tight enough that no single city stands out as dramatically safer, but Wesson (population 2,250) and the smaller Georgetown (population 220) offer the least elevated risk profiles for landlords who want to minimize collection exposure within the county.

State-level laws that apply here

Under Mississippi eviction laws state law, the Mississippi eviction laws eviction process begins with a written notice whose length depends on the reason for removal. Non-payment of rent requires only a 3-day notice; a lease violation subject to cure requires 14 days; and a no-cause or end-of-term termination requires 30 days, all governed by Miss. Code § 89-8 (Landlord and Tenant). Those short notice periods are a meaningful operational advantage compared with many other states. An uncontested case typically resolves in 30 to 60 days from filing; a contested matter can stretch to 60 to 120 days.

On Mississippi eviction costs, landlords should budget for a court filing fee of $75 to $150, a sheriff lockout fee of $30 to $120, and attorney fees that commonly run $500 to $2,500 depending on complexity. Mississippi eviction laws imposes no rent control and does not require just cause for non-renewal, and the state preempts any local jurisdiction from enacting rent caps, which keeps the regulatory environment stable across every city in the county. Source-of-income is not a protected class under state law, giving landlords standard screening flexibility, though federal Fair Housing rules apply in full.

With a poverty rate of 29% and a renter share of 37.1%, a meaningful portion of Copiah County households operate under financial stress, making the city-level breakdown in the grid above a practical starting point for narrowing down where to buy or manage.