I've seen this question asked a few times across a number of different threads.
I have the starting stats for all the races and their two off shoots. These were the starting stats in last test (Phase 3)
STR: Increases melee attack power and the percentage of damage mitigated by block and parry.
DEX: Increases ranged attack power and the chance of blocking or parrying an attack.
VIT: More HP
INT: Increases Spell DMG (Magic)
MND: Increase Spell healing (Magic)
PIE: Increase MP
(Not a 100% on the above discription/break down of the stats)
The following are the races and their stats, the numbers are in order of STR, DEX, VIT, INT, MND, PIE
Midlander/Highlander (Hyur) (Hume)
Midlander: 21, 19, 20, 21, 18, 21
Highlander: 22, 18, 23, 17, 21, 19 (Exactly the same stats as the Sea Wolves)
Wildwood/Duskwight (Elezen) (Elvaan)
Wildwood: 19, 23, 18, 22, 17, 21
Duskwight: 20, 20, 19, 23, 20, 18
Plainsfolk/Dunesfolk (Lalafell) (Tarutaru)
Plainsfolk: 18, 22, 18, 21, 20, 21
Dunesfolk: 17, 20, 17, 21, 22, 23
Seekers of the Sun/Keepers of the Moon (Miqo'te) (Mithra)
Seekers: 21, 22, 20, 18, 19, 20
Keepers: 18, 21, 17, 19, 23, 22
Sea Wolves/Hellsguard (Roegadyn) (Galka)
Sea Wolves: 22, 18, 23, 17, 21, 19 (Exactly the same stats as the Highlander)
Hellsguard: 20, 17, 21, 20, 22, 20
Because of the way stats work now this is the biggest difference between starting races. At level 10 or after every time you level you will get to pick which stats you want to boost. This means that if a Hellsgaurd and Dunesfolk were to put the same amount of points leveling up in to the same stats the only difference between the two would be fairly minimal. The only time these stats really make a big difference is early after that everyone is going to tailor their character just a little different. But in the end whether you play one race over the other you are likely to be very close to each others stats as each race offers something fairly desirable that people will likely put a few points into.
Fixed: the description for STR and DEX, thanks to TwistedOwl, I should have pulled my old collectors box out of the closet and checked the manual. Cheers!
Edited, Aug 14th 2013 7:24pm by Bludot