There are 6,004 households out of which 19.5% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 35.6% are married couples living together, 9.5% have a female householder with no husband present, and 52.2% are non-families. 39.1% of all households are made up of individuals and 13.6% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.02 and the average family size is 2.70.
The age distribution, which is strongly influenced by Murray State, is: 13.6% under the age of 18, 33.7% from 18 to 24, 20.7% from 25 to 44, 16.0% from 45 to 64, and 16.0% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 26 years. For every 100 females there are 86.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 83.8 males.
The median income for a household in the city is $25,647, and the median income for a family is $41,331. Males have a median income of $30,266 versus $22,294 for females. The per capita income for the city is $15,389. 22.1% of the population and 11.2% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 20.8% are under the age of 18 and 9.9% are 65 or older. However, traditional measures of poverty can be misleading when applied to communities with a large proportion of students, such as Murray.