Cape Girardeau is also a college town, where lots of students live while attending area colleges. Because of the high percentage of people living in Cape Girardeau enrolled in college, Cape Girardeau has a number of services, amenities and opportunities geared towards the needs and activities of students.
Compared to the rest of the country, citizens of Cape Girardeau spend much less time in their cars: on average, their commute to work is only 16.49 minutes. This also means that noise and pollution levels in the city are less than they would otherwise be.
The population of Cape Girardeau is very well educated relative to most cities and towns in the nation, where the average community has 21.84% of its adult population holding a 4-year degree or higher: 34.88% of adults in Cape Girardeau have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.
The per capita income in Cape Girardeau in 2022 was $32,930, which is upper middle income relative to Missouri, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $131,720 for a family of four. However, Cape Girardeau contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Cape Girardeau is a very ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Cape Girardeau home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Cape Girardeau residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Cape Girardeau include German, English, Irish, Italian, and Scottish.
The most common language spoken in Cape Girardeau is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and French.
