Columbia is a small town where college students really create the town feel and character. So many small towns have lost population over the last 20-30 years that having the local college presence in the Columbia area, with all of the energy of the students filling area dorms and apartments each fall, really helps Columbia maintain a good economy.
Overall, Columbia’s crime rate is one of the lowest in the nation, which makes a great place to live if safety is an important concern.
Compared to the rest of the country, citizens of Columbia spend much less time in their cars: on average, their commute to work is only 17.11 minutes. This also means that noise and pollution levels in the city are less than they would otherwise be.
Columbia is a small city, and as such doesn't have a public transit system that people use to get to and from their jobs every day.
In terms of college education, Columbia is somewhat better educated than the 21.84% who have a 4-year degree or higher in the typical US community: 25.26% of adults 25 and older in the city have at least a bachelor's degree.
The per capita income in Columbia in 2022 was $26,780, which is middle income relative to Kentucky, and lower middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $107,120 for a family of four. However, Columbia contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Columbia is a somewhat ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Columbia home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Columbia residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Columbia include English, German, Irish, Scots-Irish, and European.
The most common language spoken in Columbia is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Polish.
