In addition, Starkville is a major college town that has a very high percentage of its residents over 18 years old who are college students. Naturally, collegiate life has a major influence on local Starkville culture, lifestyle and entertainment options. Starkville really pulses to the beat of the academic calendar. In Starkville every fall, returning students reinvigorate the community, who you will notice are all over town, buying groceries, out with friends, and getting acquainted or re-acquainted with each other and Starkville. One of the beneficial effects that colleges provide is that they tend to be lasting institutions that deliver direct economic benefits to the local economy in the form of such things as jobs for faculty and staff, and spending by students. Starkville benefits directly from this.
Starkville, while not large, also appears to be attractive to some younger, educated professionals, who help shape the character of the city.
Residents of the city have the good fortune of having one of the shortest daily commutes compared to the rest of the country. On average, they spend only 18.83 minutes getting to work every day.
The citizens of Starkville are among the most well-educated in the nation: 47.26% of adults in Starkville have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree, whereas the average US city has 21.84% holding at least a bachelor's degree.
The per capita income in Starkville in 2022 was $31,354, which is upper middle income relative to Mississippi, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $125,416 for a family of four. However, Starkville contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Starkville also has one of the higher rates of people living in poverty in the nation, with 30.65% of its population below the federal poverty line.
Starkville is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Starkville home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Starkville residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Starkville include English, German, Irish, Italian, and Scots-Irish.
The most common language spoken in Starkville is English. Other important languages spoken here include Chinese and Spanish.
