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Place dossier plate
SheetWI-BARABOO-WI · Baraboo, WI 12,506 pop · income 54th pct · 24 tracts
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Baraboo
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Baraboo on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Pollard · lowest
73,500
Pollard · lowest
73,500 median HH income
29.4% of the leader · rank #1
Baraboo · this city
73,515
Baraboo · this city
73,515 median HH income
29.4% of the leader · rank #2
Estelle · near
73,519
Estelle · near
73,519 median HH income
29.4% of the leader · rank #3
Arlington · near
73,519
Arlington · near
73,519 median HH income
29.4% of the leader · rank #4
Bressler · near
73,525
Bressler · near
73,525 median HH income
29.4% of the leader · rank #5
Newman · near
73,526
Newman · near
73,526 median HH income
29.4% of the leader · rank #6
Winnetka · highest
250,001
Winnetka · highest
250,001 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Baraboo on ACS population and median household income
. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 12,506.
Nationally, Baraboo sits in the 54th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
54th
percentile, household income
43rd
percentile, home value
29th
percentile, median rent
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Baraboo, WI
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 12,506 residents in Baraboo, a small town within Wisconsin. Households in Baraboo report a median income of $73,515 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 4.0%. Baraboo's housing stock carries a median value of $201,800, and the median resident age is 40.2 years. Educational attainment runs 26.7% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 64.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 157 residential building permits were authorized in Baraboo (Building Boom), up 1327% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. NOAA puts Baraboo's yearly average temperature at 46.6°F with 38.9 inches of precipitation per year and 42.7 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in Wisconsin run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Wisconsin at 94.1 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Below Average). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,097 per month. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Wisconsin's average monthly utility costs around $225 (state average). Natural-hazard exposure scores 59.1 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Baraboo's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from schools and households to within-city variation to housing and income to climate and hazard context to work and mobility to population change to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Baraboo, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Baraboo?
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
The NCES join finds 8 public schools within the city match. 26.7% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
PlainCities matches 24 Census tracts to this city.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
How far does income reach against housing in Baraboo?
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 4.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Baraboo?
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching.
Within Wisconsin, the closest population matches are Fort Atkinson (12,490 residents, $75,350 income); Port Washington (12,569 residents, $81,582 income); Brown Deer (12,615 residents, $91,567 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Ridge, NY (12,506 residents); Winnetka, IL (12,508 residents); Lake Elmo, MN (12,504 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Climate and hazard context
What physical conditions frame life in Baraboo?
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 46.6°F, with 38.9 inches of precipitation and 42.7 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Wisconsin is 59.1 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
FEMA risk index (state avg)
59.1
Annual precipitation
38.9 in
Mean temperature
46.6°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
What does the journey to work look like in Baraboo?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 77.8%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Drive alone
77.8%
Work from home
7.2%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 6,537 workers age 16+.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +691 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +5.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 157 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
2020 estimate
12,533
2025 estimate
13,224
Period change
+5.5%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Above median income · poverty 4.0% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
94.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Wisconsin average
C+
City profile score · Baraboo, WI
61/100
4 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Poverty rate B
4.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Cost of living B-
94.1 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Household income C-
$73,515
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share C-
26.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Baraboo profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 72/100 (B) · 4.0%
Cost of living: 68/100 (B-) · 94.1 index
Household income: 53/100 (C-) · $73,515
Bachelor's+ share: 52/100 (C-) · 26.7%
How does Baraboo compare to other US cities?
Here's how Baraboo stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income54% higher than other cities
Home value43% pricier than other cities
Median rent29% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Baraboo against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Wisconsin only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Wisconsin-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Baraboo near the bottom of Wisconsin's cities
Among the 761 Wisconsin cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Baraboo ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Baraboo only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#308 of 753
59th percentile in Wisconsin
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 761
0th percentile in Wisconsin
Median Home Value
#296 of 754
61st percentile in Wisconsin
Poverty Rate
#449 of 761
41st percentile in Wisconsin
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#272 of 761
64th percentile in Wisconsin
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Wisconsin only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
54th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Baraboo's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$201,800Among the most affordablemore affordable than 57% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Baraboo's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,287 of 15,516
More affordable than 66% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#599 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.7×, Baraboo sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,287 of 15,516 and #599 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$73,515Baraboo, WI median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Baraboo, WI median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Baraboo, WI.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)26.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)4.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)64.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
12,506
Median Income
$73,515
Median Home Value
$201,800
Median Age
40.2
Poverty Rate
4.0%
Labor force participation
64.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
26.7%
Climate
Avg Temperature
46.6°F
Annual Precipitation
38.9"
Annual Snowfall
42.7"
Schools
Total Schools
8
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Baraboo's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
12,533 residents
2021
12,667 residents
2022
12,638 residents
2023
12,871 residents
2024
13,107 residents
2025
13,224 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
157
housing units authorized
Single-Family
17
detached homes
Multifamily
140
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
12.6
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
11
9
2
$2.2M
2020
8
8
0
$1.9M
2021
152
14
138
$18.2M
2022
19
13
6
$5.7M
2023
151
12
139
$23.0M
2024
157
17
140
$19.5M
Permit volume increased 1327% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
77.8%
Carpool
9.4%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
3.7%
Work from Home
7.2%
Other
1.9%
Based on 6,537 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Wisconsin statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $225
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Wisconsin at $225 (electricity about $100 , water and sewer about $45 ).
These are Wisconsin statewide averages, not a meter reading for Baraboo. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Wisconsin's BEA cost-of-living index is 94.1 (Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Baraboo is $1,097/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Wisconsin statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 59.1 / 100 (Moderate).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Wisconsin statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Baraboo sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Baraboo compares to similar-size Wisconsin cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, NOAA Climate Normals, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.