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Place dossier plate
SheetWI-COLUMBUS-WI · Columbus, WI 5,493 pop · income 56th pct
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 Columbus
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Columbus on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Albion · lowest
45,474
Albion · lowest
45,474 median HH income
31.6% of the leader · rank #1
Greenfield · near
74,949
Greenfield · near
74,949 median HH income
52.0% of the leader · rank #2
Montebello · near
74,955
Montebello · near
74,955 median HH income
52.0% of the leader · rank #3
Columbus · this city
74,957
Columbus · this city
74,957 median HH income
52.0% of the leader · rank #4
Forty Fort · near
74,966
Forty Fort · near
74,966 median HH income
52.0% of the leader · rank #5
Olcott · near
74,970
Olcott · near
74,970 median HH income
52.0% of the leader · rank #6
Strawberry CD… · highest
144,130
Strawberry CD… · highest
144,130 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, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Columbus on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. 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: 5,493.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Columbus - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Columbus lands in the 56th percentile for household income and the 84th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
56th
percentile, household income
50th
percentile, home value
29th
percentile, median rent
84th
percentile, safety
📝 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: Columbus, WI
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 5,493 residents in Columbus, a small town within Wisconsin. Median household income here is $74,957 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 4.7%. Columbus's housing stock carries a median value of $225,700, and the median resident age is 39.4 years. About 31.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 70.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 2 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 83% from five years earlier. Columbus reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 535.3 crimes per 100,000 residents, below the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score).
Living costs in Wisconsin run below the national norm: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Wisconsin scores 94.1 (Below Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,097 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $225 across Wisconsin, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Workers in Columbus report an average commute of 20.5 minutes, with 72.9% driving alone and 17.8% working from home. 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 Columbus'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 population change to work and mobility to reported crime to housing and income to schools and households to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Columbus, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Is Columbus growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -135 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 2 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 downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
What does the journey to work look like in Columbus?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 72.9%. The reported mean trip to work is 20.5 minutes.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Columbus?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 535.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 77% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
Which cities make useful reference points for Columbus?
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. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
Within Wisconsin, the closest population matches are Prairie du Chien (5,471 residents, $52,670 income); Berlin (5,523 residents, $55,216 income); Rothschild (5,532 residents, $87,250 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Osceola, IA (5,495 residents); Albion, NY (5,495 residents); Quantico Base, VA (5,491 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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Columbus?
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 3.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 4.7%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
3.0×
Home value
$225,700
Household income
$74,957
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
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 4 public schools within the city match. 31.4% 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.
Poverty estimate
4.7%
Bachelor's degree+
31.4%
Matched public schools
4
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Above median income · poverty 4.7% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
94.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Wisconsin average
B-
City profile score · Columbus, WI
65/100
5 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.
Violent crime B+
74 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger 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.
Poverty rate B-
4.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share C+
31.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income C-
$74,957
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Columbus profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 77/100 (B+) · 74 /100k
Cost of living: 68/100 (B-) · 94.1 index
Poverty rate: 67/100 (B-) · 4.7%
Bachelor's+ share: 60/100 (C+) · 31.4%
Household income: 54/100 (C-) · $74,957
Where Columbus sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Columbus's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Columbus highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Columbus, WI (this city): home $225,700, crime 535/100k
Osceola, IA : home $145,300, crime 2,208/100k
Walterboro, SC : home $170,500, crime 6,386/100k
Kodiak, AK : home $314,800, crime 1,267/100k
Berlin, WI : home $143,800, crime 533/100k
North Fond du Lac, WI : home $144,900, crime 802/100k
Milton, WI : home $210,500, crime 461/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Columbus compare to other US cities?
Here's how Columbus stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income56% higher than other cities
Home value50% pricier than other cities
Median rent29% pricier than other cities
Safety84% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Wisconsin and the picture shifts: Columbus ranks #57 of 202 Wisconsin cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Columbus 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 Columbus near the bottom of Wisconsin's cities
Among the 761 Wisconsin cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Columbus ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Columbus only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#292 of 753
61st percentile in Wisconsin
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 761
0th percentile in Wisconsin
Median Home Value
#237 of 754
69th percentile in Wisconsin
Poverty Rate
#416 of 761
45th percentile in Wisconsin
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#185 of 761
75th 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
56th percentile nationally for median household income · 84th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Columbus's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Columbus's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Columbus's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$225,700Among the most affordablemore affordable than 50% 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
Columbus's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#6,745 of 15,516
More affordable than 57% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#5,701 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.0×, Columbus sits in the moderate band:
national rank #6,745 of 15,516 and #5,701 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
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
$74,957Columbus, WI median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Columbus, 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 Columbus, WI.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)31.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)4.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)70.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
5,493
Median Income
$74,957
Median Home Value
$225,700
Median Age
39.4
Poverty Rate
4.7%
Labor force participation
70.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
31.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
535.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
73.8
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
461.4
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Schools
Total Schools
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Columbus's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
5,535 residents
2021
5,522 residents
2022
5,514 residents
2023
5,467 residents
2024
5,423 residents
2025
5,400 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
2
housing units authorized
Single-Family
2
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
12
12
0
$2.3M
2020
14
14
0
$2.7M
2021
7
7
0
$1.5M
2022
3
3
0
$0.6M
2023
2
2
0
$0.7M
2024
2
2
0
$0.7M
Permit volume decreased 83% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
20.5 minutes
Drive Alone
72.9%
Carpool
6.2%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
3.2%
Work from Home
17.8%
Based on 3,105 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 Columbus. 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 Columbus 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 Columbus sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Columbus 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, FBI UCR, 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.