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.
The overall crime rate in Columbia is one of the lowest in the US. This makes it one of the safer places to live in the country in terms of crime.
Residents of the city have the good fortune of having one of the shortest daily commutes compared to the rest of the country. On average, they spend only 17.93 minutes getting to work every day.
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.
The percentage of adults in Columbia who are college-educated is close to the national average for all communities of 21.84%: 19.38% of the adults in Columbia have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Columbia in 2022 was $25,563, 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 $102,252 for a family of four. However, Columbia contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
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, European, and Scots-Irish.
The most common language spoken in Columbia is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Polish.
