Starr County comprises the Rio Grande Citymicropolitan statistical area, which also includes other small cities, which itself is part of the largerRio Grande Valley region. It is directly northeast of the Mexican border.
The county population is almost entirely Hispanic or Latino, with 97.7% of its population identifying as such. It is the county with thehighest proportion of Hispanics[4] in the United States. It had continuously voted Democratic for president between 1896 and 2020, but flipped Republican in 2024.
According to theU.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,229 square miles (3,180 km2), of which 5.9 square miles (15 km2) (0.5%) are covered by water.[6]
As of the2020 census, the county had a population of 65,920 and 12,836 families residing within its borders. The median age was 31.9 years. 30.1% of residents were under the age of 18 and 12.9% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 92.5 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 88.2 males age 18 and over.[10][11]
71.4% of residents lived in urban areas, while 28.6% lived in rural areas.[12]
There were 19,868 households in the county, of which 47.2% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 52.1% were married-couple households, 14.0% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 30.6% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 17.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.[10]
There were 22,980 housing units, of which 13.5% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 75.1% were owner-occupied and 24.9% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.0% and the rental vacancy rate was 9.2%.[10]
According to the Census Bureau, Starr County had the highest percentage of Hispanic residents of any county in the United States,[13] and the lowest percentage of non-Hispanic White residents.[14]
Starr County, Texas – Racial and ethnic composition Note: the US census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos may be of any race.
As of thecensus[18] of 2000, 53,597 people, 14,410 households, and 12,666 families were living in the county. Thepopulation density was 44 people per square mile (17 people/km2). The 17,589 housing units had an average density of 14 units per square mile (5.4 units/km2). Theracial makeup of the county was 87.92% White, 0.15% African American, 0.25% Native American, 0.28% Asian, 9.95% from other races, and 1.46% from two or more races.
Of the 14,410 households, 54.7% had children under 18 living with them, 66.5% were married couples living together, 17.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 12.1% were not families. About 11.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 5.9% had someone living alone who was 65or older. The average household size was 3.69, and the average family size was 4.01.
In the county, the age distribution was 37.4% under the age of 18, 11.0% from 18 to 24, 27.1% from 25 to 44, 16.3% from 45 to 64, and 8.2% who were 65 or older. The median age was 26 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.20 males. For every 100 females 18 and over, there were 88.10 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $16,504, and for a family was $17,556. Males had a median income of $17,398 versus $13,533 for females. Theper capita income for the county was $7,069, which is thethird-lowest in the United States. About 47.40% of families and 50.90% of the population were below thepoverty line, including 59.40% of those under age 18 and 43.30% of those age 65 or over.
As of 2009 the median household income was $22,418.[5]
A key group of Hispanics and Latinos in the county,Tejanos, are, compared to other groups of Hispanics and Latinos, are more likely to describe their race as white. If Hispanic/Latino is not counted as a race, the county is majority white, as 99% of the residents, circa 2021, counted themselves as white. Jack Herrera ofTexas Monthly stated that "That means the county isn’t just one of the most Hispanic in the country. It’s also one of the whitest."[19]
TheRoman Catholic Diocese of Brownsville operates area Catholic schools.Immaculate Conception School, located in Rio Grande City and founded in 1884, is the only Catholic school in Starr County and provides a faith-based pre-K through eighth-grade education to approximately 250 students each year.
In the 1970s and into the 1980s, federal law-enforcement officials concentrated their efforts against drug smuggling on Starr County.[23]
On May 1, 2009, the former sheriff of Starr County, Reymundo Guerra, aDemocrat, pleaded guilty in federal court to anarcotics conspiracy charge.[24]
In April 2016, Starr CountyJustice of the Peace Salvador Zarate Jr., faced up to 20 yearsimprisonment and a $10,000 fine on two counts ofbribery for accepting a $500 bribe in exchange for reducing bond on two persons arrested on narcotics charges in an incident on Christmas Eve 2014. He was found not guilty of possession of a controlled substance. Zarate was expected to appeal any sentence rendered.[25]
Starr County had long been a strongly Democratic county. However, in2024, Donald Trump became the first Republican since1892 to carry the county, ending over 130 years of Democratic dominance.[26] Starr had thelongest streak of voting for Democrats in the entire country.[27][28] Its streak was triple the length of Minnesota's Democratic streak, which began in1976.[29] In1988, the county gaveMichael Dukakis his highest vote share in the nation, as well asBill Clinton in1996.[30]
In2008,Barack Obama won Starr County with 8,274 votes, or 84 percent of the total vote. In2020,Donald Trump came within five points of winning the county, receiving 8,247 votes (47 percent) toJoe Biden's 9,123 (52 percent).[31][32] This was a major shift fromHillary Clinton's 60-point margin of victoryfour years earlier, and it represented the strongest pro-Trump swing of any county in the nation. Trump received more than three times as many votes in 2020 compared to 2016 in the county.[19]
In 2024, Trump received a majority of the votes in Starr County, winning it by a 16% margin, which was larger than Trump's 14% margin statewide. Republican U.S. SenatorTed Cruz also concurrently won Starr County in the2024 U.S. Senate election in Texas.[33] Starr County was thelowest-income county in Texas that Trump won, with a median household income of $38,824 in 2023. It is also the county that shifted furthest to the right from2012 to 2024, having done so by 89 percentage points.[34]
United States presidential election results for Starr County, Texas[35]
As of 2011, Starr County had approximately 55colonias. By that year, many families were moving to the colonias.[5]
Between the 2000 and 2010 censuses, Starr County went through many changes. Four CDPs were deleted, one gained area, 12 lost area, and 92 new CDPs were created. Only 11 remained unchanged.[37]
^Census Bureau data, cited in "Minorities now in the majority in nearly 10% of U.S. counties", Associated Press August 8, 2007,Lexington Herald-Leader p A8
