Gulfport is the second-largest city in Mississippi after the divulge capital, Jackson. Along subsequent to Biloxi, Gulfport is the co-county seat of Harrison County and the larger of the two principal cities of the Gulfport-Biloxi, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 census, the city of Gulfport had a sum population of 72,926, with 416,259 in the metro area as of 2018. It is also house to the US Navy Atlantic Fleet Seabees.

This area was occupied by indigenous cultures for thousands of years, culminating in the historic accomplishment between the Choctaw and the first European explorers of the area. Along the Gulf Coast, French colonists founded easily reached Biloxi, and Mobile in the 18th century, well back the area was acquired from France by the United States in 1803 in the Louisiana Purchase. By the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the United States completed treaties to obliterate Choctaw and other tribal house claims and removed them to Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. In that period, the new four of the Five Civilized Tribes in the Southeast were then removed, to make quirk for white settlers to accept over the lands and manufacture them for agriculture, especially cotton.

An further on settlement close this location, known as Mississippi City, appeared upon a map of Mississippi from 1855. Mississippi City was the county chair of Harrison County from 1841 to 1902, but is now a suburb in east Gulfport.

Gulfport was incorporated upon July 28, 1898. The city was founded by William H. Hardy, who was president of the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad (G&SIRR) that amalgamated inland lumber mills to the coast. He was allied by Joseph T. Jones, who innovative took higher than the G&SIRR, dredged the port in Gulfport, and opened the shipping channel to the sea. In 1902, the harbor was completed and the Port of Gulfport became a vigorous seaport. On April 28, 1904 the Treasury Department misused the harbor of admittance for the district of the Pearl River from Shieldsboro to Gulfport. It now accounts for millions of dollars in annual sales and tax revenue for the let in of Mississippi.