Forrest County, Mississippi
Forrest County is located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 78,158. Its county seat and largest city is Hattiesburg. The county was created from Perry County in 1908 and named in honor of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate general in the American Civil War and the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Forrest County is part of the Hattiesburg, MS Metropolitan Statistical Area. Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which  is land and  (0.8%) is water. Major highways
  Interstate 59
  U.S. Highway 11
  U.S. Highway 49
  U.S. Highway 98
  Mississippi Highway 13
  Mississippi Highway 42

Adjacent counties
 Jones County (northeast)
 Perry County (east)
 Stone County (south)
 Pearl River County (southwest)
 Lamar County (west)
 Covington County (northwest)

National protected area
 De Soto National Forest (part)

Demographics

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 78,158 people, 27,340 households, and 15,633 families residing in the county. Communities

Cities
 Hattiesburg (county seat; small portion in Lamar County)
 Petal

Census-designated places
 Eastabuchie (located mostly in Jones County)
 Glendale
 Rawls Springs

Other unincorporated communities

 Brooklyn
 Carnes
 Eatonville
 Fruitland Park
 Maxie
 Maybank
 McLaurin
 Wallis

Ghost towns
 Riverside

Politics

Forrest County has not supported the National Democratic ticket for president since 1944, when it voted overwhelmingly for Franklin Roosevelt in his landslide record fourth term victory. That is the longest such streak of any county in the state. Only twice since then has it not voted Republican, in 1948 when it backed the States Rights ticket of Strom Thurmond and then-Mississippi Governor Fielding Wright, and in 1968 when it voted for George Wallace and Curtis LeMay. See also
 National Register of Historic Places listings in Forrest County, Mississippi

References

External links
 
 Mississippi Courthouses – Forrest County

 
Mississippi counties
Hattiesburg metropolitan area
1908 establishments in Mississippi
Populated places established in 1908
Nathan Bedford Forrest