Stone, John M., Cotton Mill · Photo: rossograph · CC BY-SA 4.0Starkville is a college town: 25% of residents are students
About one in three work in Starkville; the top destination outside it is Columbus (6%, 24 miles). The two grades for Starkville are C− for jobs and income and B for walkability. Measured by family income, Starkville is behind 75% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Starkville apart on work
No single place dominates Starkville’s commute
The biggest draw, Columbus, gets only 6% of working residents, and 50% work outside the top ten towns entirely. Starkville residents fan out across the region. The commute map ↓
Starkville draws workers from far and wide
The 12,701 jobs in Starkville are filled from a wide area. Starkville’s own residents hold 21% and the ten next-biggest home towns 12%; the other 67% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Commutes from Starkville are quick
The average trip to work takes 20 minutes, against 26 across Mississippi. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical Mississippi worker. Time on the road ↓
A young workforce
30% of Starkville’s working residents are 29 or younger. The jobs ↓
Many jobs in Starkville pay little
27% of the jobs based in Starkville pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. Young workers hold many of them: 36% of all the jobs here go to people 29 or younger. The jobs ↓
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.
The four measures behind Starkville’s grade
On family income, poverty and job access, Starkville is better than 21% of U.S. towns, #45 of 99 in Mississippi. Job access by car holds Starkville’s grade up (ahead of 48% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (20.2%, U.S. 11.9%).
Unemployment (6.1%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($73,903), since student households pull the household median down ($42,125).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Starkville could be anywhere from D to C+.
Where people from Starkville work
Where Starkville clocks in
3% of workers
3% 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.
Starkville’s commute takes about 20 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Starkville workers work from home, vs 6% across Mississippi. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 11,362 commuters (the 7% who work from home are left out). Across Mississippi: 87% 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.
The 12,701 jobs based in Starkville
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Starkville, 2013 → 2023: 11,803 → 12,701. 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 Starkville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many people are in Starkville by day
On a workday 5,899 residents head out to work, 2,607 work right here, and 10,094 people come in from elsewhere.
About 30,000 people are in Starkville on a workday afternoon, 16% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.49 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Half of Starkville commutes less than 4 miles
About 28% 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.
Most of Starkville commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Starkville is more walkable than 61% of U.S. towns, #28 of 101 in Mississippi. Both inputs place Starkville near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 12,236 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). 6.5% of Starkville households have no vehicle (Mississippi 6.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Starkville’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Starkville sits among U.S. towns of 18,000 to 35,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Lake Forest IL | 19,731 | $235K | 3.5% | 1.8% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 159 | Madison MS | 28,575 | $119K | 4.8% | 2.0% | 9% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 679 | Hernando MS | 18,824 | $77K | 8.8% | 2.5% | 19% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 793 | Ocean Springs MS | 18,993 | $80K | 5.5% | 4.2% | 23% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,430 | Albertville AL | 23,710 | $56K | 18.2% | 6.0% | 33% | C− |
| 1,431 | Mount Pleasant MI | 20,925 | $45K | 31.4% | 7.6% | 32% | C− |
| 1,432 | Starkville MS | 25,754 | $42K | 30.7% | 6.1% | 31% | C− |
| 1,433 | St. Andrews SC | 19,868 | $47K | 25.4% | 7.2% | 3% | C− |
| 1,434 | Statesville NC | 32,181 | $53K | 20.4% | 6.8% | 28% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,576 | Nogales AZ | 19,495 | $43K | 28.0% | 15.7% | 37% | 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 Starkville, the top three, the last and three more from Mississippi.
The towns around Starkville
The biggest share goes to Mississippi State (2%).
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Starkville workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starkville | – | C− | B | 20 min | $42,125 |
| Mississippi State | 2% | — | B+ | 17 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Starkville’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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.
- Students. 25% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Starkville: questions
What is the median household income in Starkville?
$42,125 (±$5,076) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $56,447 across Mississippi and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Starkville?
30.7% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 20.2%. Mississippi: 18.9%.
How long is the commute from Starkville?
20 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Mississippi and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Starkville work?
31% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Columbus (6%, 24 mi), Tupelo (3%, 56 mi), West Point (3%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Starkville walkable?
Starkville is more walkable than 61% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.0 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Starkville without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Starkville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Starkville
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.