Starr County vs Wise County

A side-by-side comparison of Starr County and Wise County: population, income, housing, and more.

Starr County and Wise County are counties in Texas. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Wise County has the higher population (72,359 vs 65,809 in Starr County). Wise County has the higher median household income ($89,897 vs $38,182 in Starr County). Wise County has the higher median home value ($277,200 vs $93,300 in Starr County).

Population, income & housing

	Starr County	Wise County
Population	65,809	72,359
Median age	29.1 yrs	40.0 yrs
Median household income	$38,182	$89,897
Median home value	$93,300	$277,200
Median gross rent	$715	$1,239
Housing units	23,008	27,196
Homeownership rate	71.6%	82.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	13.3%	20.6%
Unemployment rate	10.8%	5.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Starr County	Wise County
Population	64,078 → 65,809 (+2.7%)	66,290 → 72,359 (+9.2%)
Median household income	$30,387 → $38,182 (+25.7%)	$64,536 → $89,897 (+39.3%)
Median home value	$71,900 → $93,300 (+29.8%)	$170,300 → $277,200 (+62.8%)
Median gross rent	$588 → $715 (+21.6%)	$966 → $1,239 (+28.3%)

Starr County

Population

64,07865,809

Median household income

$30,387$38,182

Median home value

$71,900$93,300

Median gross rent

$588$715

Wise County

Population

66,29072,359

Median household income

$64,536$89,897

Median home value

$170,300$277,200

Median gross rent

$966$1,239

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Starr County	Wise County
Under 5	9.2%	5.9%
5 to 17	23.6%	18.8%
18 to 24	11.4%	7.7%
25 to 34	13.5%	12.1%
35 to 44	11.4%	13.2%
45 to 54	11.0%	12.9%
55 to 64	8.7%	14.1%
65 to 74	6.5%	9.6%
75 and over	4.7%	5.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Starr County	Wise County
White (non-Hispanic)	2.2%	73.8%
Black or African American	0.2%	1.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.3%
Asian	0.0%	0.7%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.2%	0.4%
Two or more races	0.1%	2.9%
Hispanic or Latino	97.3%	20.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Starr County	Wise County
No high school diploma	39.9%	13.4%
High school graduate	25.1%	33.7%
Some college or associate's	21.7%	32.3%
Bachelor's degree	9.0%	14.1%
Graduate or professional degree	4.3%	6.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Starr County	Wise County
Drove alone	71.6%	76.9%
Carpooled	14.2%	11.5%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	3.3%	0.7%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	9.1%	10.0%
Other means	1.8%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Starr County	Wise County
1-unit, detached	79.8%	71.4%
1-unit, attached	1.1%	1.1%
2 to 4 units	4.2%	2.2%
5 to 19 units	3.7%	1.5%
20 or more units	0.6%	0.4%
Mobile home & other	10.6%	23.3%

Poverty & households

	Starr County	Wise County
Poverty rate	33.5%	9.1%
Average household size	3.49	2.90
Mean commute (minutes)	24	34
Median year structure built	1993	1994