Starkville is a city in, and the county seat of, Oktibbeha County, Mississippi, United States. Mississippi State University, the state's land-grant institution and a public flagship university, is located partially in Starkville but primarily in an adjacent unincorporated area designated by the United States Census Bureau as Mississippi State, Mississippi. The population was 25,309 in 2018. Starkville is the most populous city of the Golden Triangle region of Mississippi. The Starkville micropolitan statistical area includes all of Oktibbeha County.