Starkville, Mississippi
Starkville is a city in
Oktibbeha County,
Mississippi,
United States. As of the
2000 census, the city population was 21,869. It is the
county seat of Oktibbeha County.
The campus of
Mississippi State University is located in Starkville. The university dominates the city's economy.
Starkville is located at (33.462471, -88.819990).
According to the
United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 66.9
km² (25.8
mi²). 66.5 km² (25.7 mi²) of it is land and 0.4 km² (0.2 mi²) of it (0.58%) is water.
US Highway 82 and Mississippi Highways 12 and 25 are major roads through Starkville. The nearest airport with scheduled service is
Golden Triangle Regional Airport (GTR). George M. Bryan Field (KSTF) serves as Starkville's
general aviation airport.
As of the 2000 census, there were 21,869 people, 9,462 households, and 4,721 families residing in the city. The
population density was 328.7/km² (851.4/mi²). There were 10,191 housing units at an average density of 153.2/km² (396.7/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 64.60%
White, 30.02%
African American, 0.15%
Native American, 3.75%
Asian, 0.04%
Pacific Islander, 0.64% from
other races, and 0.80% from two or more races.
Hispanic or
Latino of any race were 1.34% of the population.
There were 9,462 households out of which 24.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 34.1% were
married couples living together, 13.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 50.1% were non-families. 32.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.24 and the average family size was 2.92.
The age distribution, which is strongly influenced by the presence of Mississippi State, is: 20.0% under the age of 18, 29.7% from 18 to 24, 26.6% from 25 to 44, 15.2% from 45 to 64, and 8.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 25 years. For every 100 females there were 102.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.5 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $22,590, and the median income for a family was $39,557. Males had a median income of $35,782 versus $21,711 for females. The
per capita income for the city was $16,272. About 18.1% of families and 31.1% of the population were below the
poverty line, including 28.3% of those under age 18 and 16.8% of those age 65 or over. However, traditional measures of poverty can be somewhat misleading when applied to a community with a large proportion of students, such as Starkville.
Starkville has one public high school,
Starkville High School, and one private high school,
Starkville Academy.
Johnny Cash was arrested for public drunkenness (though he described it as being picked up for picking flowers) in Starkville, which was the inspiration for his song "Starkville City Jail":
They're bound to get you,'Cause they got a curfew, And you go to the Starkville city jail. The song appears on the album
At San Quentin.
A song entitled "Starkville" appears on the
Indigo Girls' 2002 album "Become You".
Birthplace of:
*
Cool Papa Bell, African American baseball great
*Edwin Granberry, one of the cartoonists of the comic strip "
Buz Sawyer"
*
Shauntay Hinton, Miss USA 2002
*
Hayes Jones, gold medalist in the 110-meter hurdles at the Tokyo 1964 Olympics
*
Jerry Rice, professional football player
*On
March 21 2006, Starkville became the first city in Mississippi to adopt a smoking ban for indoor public places, including restaurants and bars. This ordinance went into effect on
May 20 2006.
*Popular Nicknames:
**Starkvegas
**Starkpatch
**Starktown
**Starkvoid
**Starksville
**S'ville
**Da Ville
**Boardtown
**GTA #2
*
Official City Website*
The Playhouse on Main
