Photo: StarkeDCD · CC BY-SA 4.0Starke’s household incomes are lower than in 85% of U.S. towns
Below the poverty line: 28.7% of residents, next to 12.6% for Florida as a whole. The two grades for Starke are D for jobs and income and C for walkability. 7% of workers work from home, next to 16% for Florida as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Starke at work: what stands out
Starke’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Starke is Jacksonville, 38 miles away as the crow flies. 17% of working residents (367) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Starke is where the jobs are
Starke has 3,463 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
The biggest group of Starke’s workers comes from Jacksonville
256 of the people who work in Starke live in Jacksonville, 38 miles away, more than from any other town. The commute map ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
What’s behind Starke’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Starke is better than 13% of U.S. towns, #601 of 638 in Florida. Unemployment holds Starke’s grade up (4.0%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Starke could be anywhere from D− to C+.
The commute from Starke, by distance
About 25% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Starke on a workday afternoon
On a workday 1,776 residents head out to work, 342 work right here, and 3,121 people come in from elsewhere.
About 7,300 people are in Starke on a workday afternoon, 23% more than live here.
1.6 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Commuting in to Starke: where workers come from
Where Starke clocks in
17% of workers
14% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
What the 3,463 jobs in Starke are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Starke, 2013 → 2023: 4,149 → 3,463. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Starke’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Starke spends getting to work: about 28 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Starke workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,266 commuters (the 7% who work from home are left out). Across Florida: 83% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Most trips from Starke start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Starke is more walkable than 32% of U.S. towns, #548 of 638 in Florida. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.6% across Florida.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,440 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 8.7% of Starke households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Starke’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 4,200 to 8,100, and where Starke sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 44 | Southwest Ranches FL | 7,773 | $161K | 3.8% | 1.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 46 | Bay Hill FL | 4,512 | $128K | 0.7% | 1.5% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 176 | Neptune Beach FL | 7,020 | $119K | 3.1% | 2.1% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,060 | Tyrone Township IL | 4,582 | $51K | 15.7% | 7.0% | 10% | D |
| 3,061 | Jackson Township OH | 5,048 | $51K | 14.2% | 8.8% | 20% | D |
| 3,062 | Starke FL | 5,963 | $52K | 28.7% | 4.0% | 16% | D |
| 3,063 | Clinton SC | 7,918 | $45K | 27.7% | 4.9% | 14% | D |
| 3,064 | Florida Gulf Coast University FL | 4,836 | $26K | 77.6% | 17.3% | 5% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,394 | Medina TX | 4,226 | $22K | 53.8% | 10.1% | 4% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Starke, the top three, the last and three more from Florida.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Starke: questions
What is the median household income in Starke?
$52,258 (±$16,425) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Starke?
28.7%, against 12.6% across Florida and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Starke?
28 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Florida and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Starke work?
16% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Jacksonville (17%, 38 mi), Gainesville (14%, 23 mi), Green Cove Springs (2%, 26 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Starke walkable?
Starke is more walkable than 32% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 6.6 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Starke without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Starke, from the people who make the trip.
More of Starke
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.