Spearfish is also a college town, where lots of students live while attending area colleges. Because of the high percentage of people living in Spearfish enrolled in college, Spearfish has a number of services, amenities and opportunities geared towards the needs and activities of students.

Spearfish, while not large, also appears to be attractive to some younger, educated professionals, who help shape the character of the city.

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 17.24 minutes getting to work every day.

The citizens of Spearfish are among the most well-educated in the nation: 42.63% of adults in Spearfish have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree, whereas the average US city has 21.84% holding at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in Spearfish in 2018 was $37,077, which is wealthy relative to South Dakota, and upper middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $148,308 for a family of four. However, Spearfish contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

The people who call Spearfish home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Spearfish residents report their race to be White, followed by Native American. Important ancestries of people in Spearfish include German, Norwegian, English, Irish, and Swedish.

The most common language spoken in Spearfish is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and French.