Scott County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 27,990. Its county seat is Forest. The county is named for Abram M. Scott, the Governor of Mississippi from 1832 to 1833.

Scott County is part of the Jackson, Mississippi metropolitan area.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 610 square miles (1,600 km²), of which 609 square miles (1,580 km²) is land and 1.2 square miles (3.1 km²) (0.2%) is water.

It is an approximately 45 minute driving distance from Jackson.

This area was developed by European Americans for cotton plantations. After the American Civil War, many freedmen worked as sharecroppers or tenant farmers on the plantations. In 1890 the state legislature disenfranchised most blacks, who were a majority in the state, by creating barriers to voter registration; it also passed Jim Crow laws, treating freedmen and their descendants as second-class citizens.

From 1877 to 1950, there were nine lynchings of blacks in Scott County. It was a form of racial terrorism that was at its height at the turn of the 20th century.

On October 23–25, 1898, a "race war" erupted in Harperville, an unincorporated community in Scott County, after blacks resisted one of their community being arrested for an alleged conflict with his white employer. They fatally shot a white deputy and wounded three others. A mob of whites gathered that night and started hunting down and killing black suspects, killing nine to eleven black men by the end of the following day. Sources vary in the count of fatalities, and some blacks were buried before being identified or counted. The county sheriff arrested some black suspects and took them first to the county seat at Forest, and then to Meridian for their safety. Associated Press and major newspapers covered the events.

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 27,990 people, 10,180 households, and 7,015 families residing in the county.