Many of their families want them to get a degree - and then leave. That’s not because people from this county aren’t going to college. Here, out of the county’s 1,111 residents, just an estimated 42 people aged 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree - meaning Issaquena County’s population has one of the lowest rates of educational attainment in America. The median household income is roughly $24,000, a little more than half of the statewide average.Ī single statistic underscores all these factors. There are no public schools – haven’t been for decades. There are no factories and no hospitals in Issaquena County. There are virtually no jobs for college graduates in this rural county blanketed in farm fields of soybeans, cotton and corn.

Students from Issaquena County attend school in neighboring counties - and it’s a big reason why many of these kids will have no choice when they grow up but to move away. Homecoming in Issaquena County, the least populated county in Mississippi - and one of the smallest in the country - is so popular that locals call it “South Delta University.”īut there is no college here, not for miles and miles in fact, there is no public school of any kind. “There’s no place like homecoming,” read a sign on a colorful “Wizard of Oz” themed float with a picture of Emerald City on the back. ISSAQUENA COUNTY - The kings and queens of the South Delta School District tossed candy and waved at their families as the mid-October parade wound through a small town several miles north of this rural county.

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