Pike County is a county located on the southwestern border of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,324. The county seat is Magnolia. Pike County is named for explorer Zebulon Pike. Pike County is part of the McComb, MS Micropolitan Statistical Area.

Zebulon Montgomery Pike was an American brigadier general and explorer for whom Pikes Peak in Colorado is named. As a U.S. Army officer he led two expeditions through the Louisiana Purchase territory, first in 1805–1806 to reconnoiter the upper northern reaches of the Mississippi River, and then in 1806–1807 to explore the southwest to the fringes of the northern Spanish-colonial settlements of New Mexico and Texas. Pike's expeditions coincided with other Jeffersonian expeditions, including the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the Red River Expedition in 1806.