In 1805, the Choctaw Indian Agency, headed by Silas Dinsmoor, was located in what is now Ridgeland.

During the American Civil War, General Stephen Lee used the inn as a headquarters.

In 1896, Edward Treakle and Gordon Nichols, two real estate developers from Chicago, purchased the land from Yellowley and established the Highland Colony Company.

They created plans for a town to be named "Ridgeland" and launched an advertising campaign to entice people from the northern United States to move south.

Agriculture was the community's dominant revenue source, with pears and strawberries as the leading crops grown for sale.

In the early 20th century, Ridgeland was home to a hotel, sawmill, and a canning company.

Most of the city drains southward to the Pearl River in Jackson, while the northwest corner of the city is part of the Big Black River watershed flowing west to the Mississippi.

As of the 2020 United States Census, there were 24,340 people, 10,632 households, and 6,046 families residing in the city.

Bomgar, a tech company,[9] C Spire Wireless, the sixth largest wireless provider in the United States, and Cal-Maine Foods, the largest shell egg producer in the United States, are all headquartered in Ridgeland.

[11] Ridgeland made national headlines in 2022 when mayor Gene F. McGee refused to send $110,000 in approved city funding to the Madison County Library System because the library system contained books that "went against his Christian beliefs".