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The Commemorative Quarter for Mississippi





Welcome to Laurel ...

The city of Laurel is located in Jones County<1> and is the County Seat for Jones County.

While we don't have a date for the founding of Laurel, you might consider that their post office opened  in 1884.

When the people of Laurel refer to themselves (known as a demonym), they frequently use terms like Laurelite or Laurelian.<2>

From the  Census Estimates for 2019, Laurel has a population of 18,362 people<3> (see below for details).

Laurel is 280 feet [85 m] above sea level.<4>.

Time Zone: Laurel lies in the Central Time Zone (CST/CDT) and observes daylight saving time

Area Codes for Laurel: 601 & 769<5>

Population Details ...

Taken from the 2019 Census Estimates, Laurel had an population of 18,362 people. This is a decrease of 0.96% since the 2010 Census (or a decrease of 0.17% since the 2000 Census).

At the time of the 2010 Census, Laurel had a population of 18,540 people (or 27.34% of the total population of Jones County). This makes Laurel the county's most populous community.

The population of Laurel represents 0.62% of the total population of Mississippi (which has 2,967,297 people), making it the state's 22nd most populous community.

With a 2010 count of 18,540 people, the population of Laurel has remained roughly the same as the 2000 Census (with a count of 18,393 people).

More information can be found on the Census Page for Laurel.

Communities Also Named Laurel ...

Using our Gazetteer, we found that there are 40 communities that are also named Laurel - they are located in Alabama, Arkansas, California (3), Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky (2), Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Carolina (2), Ohio, Ontario, Oregon, Pennsylvania (4), Quebec, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee (2), Texas, Virginia (3), Washington (2) and West Virginia.

For more information, see our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Laurel.

Websites for Laurel ...

Official Website: www.laurelms.com/

Communities near Laurel ...

We have created a list of 10 communities that are near Laurel.

To Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

We have a couple of sections for those tracing their genealogy.

We created a list of cemeteries that are in the area around Laurel. Our list includes the location of those cemeteries and we provide an overhead view. See our Cemetery List for Laurel.

Using the information from an 1895 Atlas, we've created a list of communities that were in the area of Laurel. Our list includes information such as whether the 1895 community had a post office or railroad service. See our List of 1890's Communities around Laurel.

We also have a detailed list of newspapers that have been published in the area around Laurel. Our list includes 19 papers. See our Newspapers Page for Laurel.

TripAdvisor Tourism Pages for Laurel ...

Looking for more information about Laurel? A wonderful source is the TripAdvisor website. We always start with the TripAdvisor Tourism page, where you can read an overview with links that will help you find lodging, restaurants and attractions.

In addition to the Tourism page for Laurel, there are neighboring communities that also have Tourism pages. More information about those communities can be found on our TripAdvisor Page for Laurel.

Adding Laurel to Our Gazetteer ...

We originally found mention of Laurel in both the FIPS-55 and the GNIS. For more information, see the FIPS and GNIS Codes sections on our Miscellaneous Page.

From our notes, the earliest published mention we've found for Laurel was in the document titled List of Post Offices from Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<8>

X2X - From that list, the Laurel post office opened in 1884.

We also found Laurel in the book titled Business Atlas and Shippers' Guide (1895).

For more details, see References and Mentions for Laurel.

The official website for Laurel: www.laurelms.com/

The official website for State of Mississippi: https://www.ms.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>If you're interested in how the shape of Mississippi's counties, including Jones, have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.
<2>A demonym is the name for a resident of a community which is usually derived from (or is related to) the name of that community. In other words, it's how the residents of Laurel refer to themselves. It's important to note that there aren't any rules for taking a city's name and turning it into a demonym. A demonym is informal and while the majority of Laurel may use one name, keep in mind that others may use something different.
<3>Population counts have been provided by the U.S. Census Bureau. For more detail, please visit our Census Page for Laurel.
<4>The elevation is an estimate for the area around Laurel - it will be higher in some places and lower in others.
<5>When there's a risk of an area code running out of phone numbers, an 'Overlay Area Code' is created that has the same geographic boundaries as the existing area code. In this case, the 601 code has been Overlayed with the 769 area code. New phone numbers in the Laurel area will be assigned with one of these codes: 601 or 769. As a result, placing a call in the Laurel area will require 10-digit dialing (where you enter both the area code and then the phone number).
<6>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<7>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<8>A copy of their list with background information can be found at:

      https://cblevins.github.io/us-post-offices/data-biography/




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 14 Jul 2025