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Place dossier plate
SheetWI-JANESVILLE-WI · Janesville, WI 65,813 pop · income 52nd pct · 41 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 Janesville
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Janesville on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Racine · lowest
55,705
Racine · lowest
55,705 median HH income
40.3% of the leader · rank #1
Janesville · this city
71,664
Janesville · this city
71,664 median HH income
51.9% of the leader · rank #2
Merriam · near
71,665
Merriam · near
71,665 median HH income
51.9% of the leader · rank #3
Taylor · near
71,665
Taylor · near
71,665 median HH income
51.9% of the leader · rank #4
Akiak · near
71,667
Akiak · near
71,667 median HH income
51.9% of the leader · rank #5
Dietrich · near
71,667
Dietrich · near
71,667 median HH income
51.9% of the leader · rank #6
Castro Valley · highest
138,069
Castro Valley · highest
138,069 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 Janesville 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: 65,813.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Janesville - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Janesville places in the 52nd percentile for household income and the 33rd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
52nd
percentile, household income
45th
percentile, home value
29th
percentile, median rent
33rd
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: Janesville, WI
Janesville is a small city in Wisconsin, home to 65,813 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Janesville households earn a median of $71,664 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 6.5%. Home values in Janesville run a median of $209,700, and the median resident age is 40.0 years. Educational attainment runs 26.9% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 62.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 302 residential building permits were authorized in Janesville (Stable), down 3% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 1985.0 incidents per 100,000 residents, near the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Living costs in Wisconsin run below the national norm: the state registers 94.1 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,097 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Wisconsin run around $225, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Workers in Janesville report an average commute of 19.5 minutes, with 79.6% driving alone and 8.6% 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 Janesville'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 work and mobility to within-city variation to comparison shortlist to population change to reported crime to schools and households to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Janesville, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, matched public-school count.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Janesville?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 79.6%. The reported mean trip to work is 19.5 minutes.
What can 41 Census tracts reveal inside Janesville?
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.
PlainCities matches 41 Census tracts to this city.
Which cities make useful reference points for Janesville?
Within Wisconsin, the closest population matches are Oshkosh (66,247 residents, $61,929 income); Eau Claire (69,274 residents, $65,369 income); Waukesha (70,779 residents, $81,651 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Ames, IA (66,112 residents); Victoria, TX (65,514 residents); Malden, MA (65,509 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.
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.
Is Janesville growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +1,277 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.9% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 302 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Janesville?
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.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1985.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 13% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1841.6
Violent rate
143.4
Total reported rate
1985.0
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What does the education layer cover for Janesville?
The NCES join finds 25 public schools within the city match. 26.9% 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.
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.
Matched public schools
25
Bachelor's degree+
26.9%
Poverty estimate
6.5%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
How far does income reach against housing in Janesville?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 6.5%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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.
Household income
$71,664
Home value
$209,700
Value / income
2.9×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Above median income · poverty 6.5% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
94.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Wisconsin average
C
City profile score · Janesville, WI
58/100
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.
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.
Violent crime C+
143 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate C
6.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share C-
26.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income C-
$71,664
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Janesville profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 68/100 (B-) · 94.1 index
Violent crime: 60/100 (C+) · 143 /100k
Poverty rate: 56/100 (C) · 6.5%
Bachelor's+ share: 53/100 (C-) · 26.9%
Household income: 51/100 (C-) · $71,664
Where Janesville sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Janesville'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 - Janesville highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Janesville, WI (this city): home $209,700, crime 1,985/100k
Ames, IA : home $263,800, crime 1,654/100k
Victoria, TX : home $193,200, crime 2,283/100k
Malden, MA : home $607,500, crime 1,472/100k
Novi, MI : home $399,100, crime 755/100k
Oshkosh, WI : home $168,400, crime 1,684/100k
Eau Claire, WI : home $228,000, crime 2,068/100k
Waukesha, WI : home $286,600, crime 989/100k
West Allis, WI : home $191,700, crime 2,234/100k
Appleton, WI : home $211,500, crime 1,549/100k
Racine, WI : home $158,100, crime 1,495/100k
How does Janesville compare to other US cities?
Here's how Janesville stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income52% higher than other cities
Home value45% pricier than other cities
Median rent29% pricier than other cities
Safety33% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at Wisconsin, Janesville ranks #173 of 202 Wisconsin cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Janesville 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 Janesville near the bottom of Wisconsin's cities
Among the 761 Wisconsin cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Janesville ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Janesville only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#340 of 753
55th percentile in Wisconsin
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 761
0th percentile in Wisconsin
Median Home Value
#279 of 754
63rd percentile in Wisconsin
Poverty Rate
#320 of 761
57th percentile in Wisconsin
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#266 of 761
65th 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
52nd percentile nationally for median household income · 33rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Janesville's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Janesville'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 Janesville's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$209,700Among the most affordablemore affordable than 55% 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
Janesville's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#6,284 of 15,516
More affordable than 59% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#107 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 2.9×, Janesville sits in the affordable band:
national rank #6,284 of 15,516 and #107 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
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
$71,664Janesville, WI median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Janesville, 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 Janesville, WI.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)26.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)6.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)62.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
65,813
Median Income
$71,664
Median Home Value
$209,700
Median Age
40.0
Poverty Rate
6.5%
Labor force participation
62.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
26.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1985.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
143.4
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1841.6
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
25
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Janesville's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
65,652 residents
2021
66,030 residents
2022
65,976 residents
2023
66,200 residents
2024
66,497 residents
2025
66,929 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Stable
Total Permits (2024)
302
housing units authorized
Single-Family
65
detached homes
Multifamily
237
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
4.6
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
312
92
220
$50.3M
2020
271
119
152
$41.4M
2021
308
138
170
$65.4M
2022
205
107
98
$69.9M
2023
82
56
26
$25.1M
2024
302
65
237
$58.2M
Permit volume decreased 3% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
19.5 minutes
Drive Alone
79.6%
Carpool
8.5%
Public Transit
0.7%
Walk
1.3%
Work from Home
8.6%
Other
1.3%
Based on 32,613 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 Janesville. 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 Janesville 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 Janesville sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Janesville 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.