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Place dossier plate
SheetWI-SUN-PRAIRIE-WI · Sun Prairie, WI 36,455 pop · income 71st 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 Sun Prairie
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Sun Prairie on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Beloit · lowest
59,975
Beloit · lowest
59,975 median HH income
35.2% of the leader · rank #1
Pataskala · near
90,513
Pataskala · near
90,513 median HH income
53.1% of the leader · rank #2
Fife · near
90,515
Fife · near
90,515 median HH income
53.1% of the leader · rank #3
Sun Prairie · this city
90,521
Sun Prairie · this city
90,521 median HH income
53.1% of the leader · rank #4
West Melbourne · near
90,521
West Melbourne · near
90,521 median HH income
53.1% of the leader · rank #5
Sunriver · near
90,529
Sunriver · near
90,529 median HH income
53.1% of the leader · rank #6
Commack · highest
170,375
Commack · highest
170,375 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 Sun Prairie 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: 36,455.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Sun Prairie - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Sun Prairie lands in the 71st percentile for household income and the 43rd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
71st
percentile, household income
70th
percentile, home value
29th
percentile, median rent
43rd
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: Sun Prairie, WI
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 36,455 residents in Sun Prairie, a small city within Wisconsin. Sun Prairie households earn a median of $90,521 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 4.1%. Sun Prairie's housing stock carries a median value of $339,800, and the median resident age is 36.9 years. Educational attainment runs 50.9% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 70.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 267 residential building permits were authorized in Sun Prairie (Construction Slowdown), down 59% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Sun Prairie reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 1594.0 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not 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. Monthly utility costs average around $225 across Wisconsin, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Workers in Sun Prairie report an average commute of 18.5 minutes, with 71.7% driving alone and 18.3% working from home. 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 Sun Prairie'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 work and mobility to schools and households to population change to reported crime to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Sun Prairie, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, local building permits, matched public-school count, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates.
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
Which cities make useful reference points for Sun Prairie?
Within Wisconsin, the closest population matches are Oak Creek (36,473 residents, $93,120 income); Beloit (36,554 residents, $59,975 income); Franklin (35,751 residents, $108,342 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Elmont, NY (36,436 residents); Claremont, CA (36,553 residents); Commack, NY (36,353 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Sun Prairie?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 71.7%. The reported mean trip to work is 18.5 minutes.
What does the education layer cover for Sun Prairie?
The NCES join finds 16 public schools within the city match. 50.9% 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.
Is Sun Prairie 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 +3,214 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +8.9% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 267 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 Sun Prairie?
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 1594.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 30% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1409.7
Violent rate
184.3
Total reported rate
1594.0
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
How far does income reach against housing in Sun Prairie?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 4.1%, 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
$90,521
Home value
$339,800
Value / income
3.8×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Above median income · poverty 4.1% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
94.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Wisconsin average
B-
City profile score · Sun Prairie, WI
68/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share A
50.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate B
4.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income B
$90,521
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
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-
184 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Sun Prairie profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 85/100 (A) · 50.9%
Poverty rate: 71/100 (B) · 4.1%
Household income: 70/100 (B) · $90,521
Cost of living: 68/100 (B-) · 94.1 index
Violent crime: 50/100 (C-) · 184 /100k
Where Sun Prairie sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Sun Prairie'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 - Sun Prairie highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Sun Prairie, WI (this city): home $339,800, crime 1,594/100k
Claremont, CA : home $870,800, crime 2,419/100k
Hilliard, OH : home $360,000, crime 1,051/100k
Manchester, CT : home $205,800, crime 2,248/100k
Oak Creek, WI : home $305,100, crime 1,832/100k
Beloit, WI : home $133,500, crime 2,606/100k
Franklin, WI : home $343,400, crime 1,258/100k
Greenfield, WI : home $247,800, crime 2,400/100k
Manitowoc, WI : home $143,900, crime 1,178/100k
Menomonee Falls, WI : home $341,600, crime 596/100k
How does Sun Prairie compare to other US cities?
Here's how Sun Prairie stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income71% higher than other cities
Home value70% pricier than other cities
Median rent29% pricier than other cities
Safety43% 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, Sun Prairie ranks #152 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 Sun Prairie 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 Sun Prairie near the bottom of Wisconsin's cities
Among the 761 Wisconsin cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Sun Prairie ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Sun Prairie only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#131 of 753
83rd percentile in Wisconsin
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 761
0th percentile in Wisconsin
Median Home Value
#73 of 754
90th percentile in Wisconsin
Poverty Rate
#443 of 761
41st percentile in Wisconsin
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#46 of 761
94th 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
71st percentile nationally for median household income · 43rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Sun Prairie's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Sun Prairie'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 Sun Prairie's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$339,80030th percentilemore affordable than 30% 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
Sun Prairie's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#9,888 of 15,516
More affordable than 36% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,742 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.8×, Sun Prairie sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,888 of 15,516 and #1,742 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
$90,521Sun Prairie, WI median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Sun Prairie, 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 Sun Prairie, WI.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)50.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)4.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)70.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
36,455
Median Income
$90,521
Median Home Value
$339,800
Median Age
36.9
Poverty Rate
4.1%
Labor force participation
70.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
50.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1594.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
184.3
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1409.7
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
16
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Sun Prairie's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
36,013 residents
2021
36,661 residents
2022
37,492 residents
2023
38,332 residents
2024
39,101 residents
2025
39,227 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
267
housing units authorized
Single-Family
82
detached homes
Multifamily
185
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
7.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2022
654
100
554
$113.1M
2023
445
95
350
$113.2M
2024
267
82
185
$66.7M
Permit volume decreased 59% from 2022 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
18.5 minutes
Drive Alone
71.7%
Carpool
6.0%
Public Transit
0.7%
Walk
1.5%
Work from Home
18.3%
Other
1.8%
Based on 19,857 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 Sun Prairie. 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 Sun Prairie 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 Sun Prairie sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Sun Prairie 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.