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Place dossier plate
SheetWI-ONALASKA-WI · Onalaska, WI 18,909 pop · income 66th 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 Onalaska
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Onalaska on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Palestine · lowest
46,228
Palestine · lowest
46,228 median HH income
43.7% of the leader · rank #1
Bemiss · near
84,886
Bemiss · near
84,886 median HH income
80.2% of the leader · rank #2
Cudjoe Key · near
84,890
Cudjoe Key · near
84,890 median HH income
80.2% of the leader · rank #3
Calistoga · near
84,892
Calistoga · near
84,892 median HH income
80.2% of the leader · rank #4
Onalaska · this city
84,898
Onalaska · this city
84,898 median HH income
80.2% of the leader · rank #5
Indian Head · near
84,898
Indian Head · near
84,898 median HH income
80.2% of the leader · rank #6
Oconomowoc · highest
105,833
Oconomowoc · highest
105,833 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 Onalaska 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: 18,909.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Onalaska - the verdict
Nationally, Onalaska sits in the 66th percentile for household income and the 25th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
66th
percentile, household income
61st
percentile, home value
29th
percentile, median rent
25th
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: Onalaska, WI
Onalaska is a small town in Wisconsin, home to 18,909 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Onalaska report a median income of $84,898 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 3.9%. Typical homes in Onalaska are valued around $279,100, and the median resident age is 40.3 years. Educational attainment runs 41.4% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 66.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 248 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 88% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 2328.5 crimes per 100,000 residents, near 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. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,097 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Wisconsin run around $225, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Commute times here average 16.5 minutes, with 83.1% driving alone and 8.1% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 59.1 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Onalaska'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 comparison shortlist to schools and households to reported crime to work and mobility to housing and income to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Onalaska, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits.
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.
1. Comparison shortlist
Which cities make useful reference points for Onalaska?
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 Fox Crossing (18,960 residents, $74,423 income); Wisconsin Rapids (18,756 residents, $54,116 income); Marshfield (18,718 residents, $59,294 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Ellensburg, WA (18,913 residents); Mebane, NC (18,899 residents); Knik-Fairview, AK (18,921 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.
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 6 public schools within the city match. 41.4% 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Onalaska?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2328.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 2% higher 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Onalaska?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 83.1%. The reported mean trip to work is 16.5 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. 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.
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 Onalaska?
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 3.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.9%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
3.3×
Home value
$279,100
Household income
$84,898
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Is Onalaska growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +1,439 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +7.6% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 248 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
18,858
2025 estimate
20,297
Period change
+7.6%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Above median income · poverty 3.9% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
94.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Wisconsin average
B
City profile score · Onalaska, WI
73/100
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 A
37 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share B+
41.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate B
3.9%
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+
$84,898
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Onalaska profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 87/100 (A) · 37 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 76/100 (B+) · 41.4%
Poverty rate: 72/100 (B) · 3.9%
Cost of living: 68/100 (B-) · 94.1 index
Household income: 64/100 (C+) · $84,898
Where Onalaska sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Onalaska'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 - Onalaska highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Onalaska, WI (this city): home $279,100, crime 2,329/100k
Ellensburg, WA : home $357,800, crime 2,409/100k
Mebane, NC : home $295,600, crime 3,518/100k
Cullman, AL : home $215,200, crime 2,682/100k
Palestine, TX : home $153,400, crime 1,863/100k
Cumberland, MD : home $120,800, crime 4,389/100k
Fox Crossing, WI : home $228,000, crime 835/100k
Wisconsin Rapids, WI : home $116,600, crime 2,425/100k
Marshfield, WI : home $169,900, crime 1,328/100k
Oconomowoc, WI : home $367,700, crime 324/100k
Menasha, WI : home $169,200, crime 1,061/100k
Cudahy, WI : home $201,000, crime 888/100k
How does Onalaska compare to other US cities?
Where Onalaska sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income66% higher than other cities
Home value61% pricier than other cities
Median rent29% pricier than other cities
Safety25% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Wisconsin alone, Onalaska ranks #182 of 202 Wisconsin cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Onalaska 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 Onalaska near the bottom of Wisconsin's cities
Among the 761 Wisconsin cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Onalaska ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Onalaska only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#187 of 753
75th percentile in Wisconsin
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 761
0th percentile in Wisconsin
Median Home Value
#143 of 754
81st percentile in Wisconsin
Poverty Rate
#453 of 761
40th percentile in Wisconsin
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#96 of 761
87th 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
66th percentile nationally for median household income · 25th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Onalaska's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Onalaska'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 Onalaska's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$279,10039th percentilemore affordable than 39% 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
Onalaska's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#8,068 of 15,516
More affordable than 48% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,275 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.3×, Onalaska sits in the moderate band:
national rank #8,068 of 15,516 and #1,275 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$84,898Onalaska, WI median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Onalaska, 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 Onalaska, WI.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)41.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)66.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
18,909
Median Income
$84,898
Median Home Value
$279,100
Median Age
40.3
Poverty Rate
3.9%
Labor force participation
66.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
41.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2328.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
36.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2291.8
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
6
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Onalaska's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
18,858 residents
2021
19,014 residents
2022
19,349 residents
2023
19,592 residents
2024
19,873 residents
2025
20,297 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
248
housing units authorized
Single-Family
20
detached homes
Multifamily
228
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
13.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
132
5
127
$14.4M
2020
75
3
72
$8.4M
2021
145
5
140
$14.6M
2022
60
3
57
$9.6M
2023
181
3
178
$24.5M
2024
248
20
228
$35.3M
Permit volume increased 88% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
16.5 minutes
Drive Alone
83.1%
Carpool
7.2%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.9%
Work from Home
8.1%
Other
0.7%
Based on 10,152 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 Onalaska. 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 Onalaska 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 Onalaska sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Onalaska 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.