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Place dossier plate
SheetWI-WAUPUN-WI · Waupun, WI 11,244 pop · income 46th 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 Waupun
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Waupun on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Platteville · lowest
42,667
Platteville · lowest
42,667 median HH income
36.9% of the leader · rank #1
Sparta · near
66,923
Sparta · near
66,923 median HH income
57.8% of the leader · rank #2
Chicopee · near
66,927
Chicopee · near
66,927 median HH income
57.9% of the leader · rank #3
Voorhees · near
66,927
Voorhees · near
66,927 median HH income
57.9% of the leader · rank #4
Waupun · this city
66,931
Waupun · this city
66,931 median HH income
57.9% of the leader · rank #5
Center Hill · near
66,932
Center Hill · near
66,932 median HH income
57.9% of the leader · rank #6
Satellite Bea… · highest
115,684
Satellite Bea… · highest
115,684 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 Waupun 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: 11,244.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Waupun - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Waupun lands in the 46th percentile for household income and the 78th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
46th
percentile, household income
33rd
percentile, home value
29th
percentile, median rent
78th
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: Waupun, WI
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 11,244 residents in Waupun, a small town within Wisconsin. Waupun households earn a median of $66,931 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 11.7%. Home values in Waupun run a median of $167,700, and the median resident age is 38.5 years. Educational attainment runs 14.7% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 52.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 1 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 97% from five years earlier. Waupun reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 662.2 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: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Wisconsin at 94.1 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Below Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,097 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Wisconsin's average monthly utility costs around $225 (state average). 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 Waupun'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 schools and households to housing and income to reported crime to comparison shortlist to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Waupun, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, local building permits, 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
What does the journey to work look like in Waupun?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 79.5%. 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.
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. 14.7% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Waupun?
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 2.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 11.7%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Waupun?
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 Two Rivers (11,224 residents, $58,716 income); Oregon (11,384 residents, $100,695 income); Platteville (11,421 residents, $42,667 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Satellite Beach, FL (11,250 residents); Fredericksburg, TX (11,254 residents); Lansing, KS (11,229 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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Waupun?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 662.2 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 71% 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.
Total reported rate
662.2
Violent rate
285.1
Property rate
377.1
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -424 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -3.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 1 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.
2020 estimate
11,574
2025 estimate
11,150
Period change
-3.7%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Below median income · poverty 11.7% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
94.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Wisconsin average
D
City profile score · Waupun, WI
41/100
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.
Household income D
$66,931
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
285 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate F
11.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
14.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Waupun profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 68/100 (B-) · 94.1 index
Household income: 45/100 (D) · $66,931
Violent crime: 35/100 (F) · 285 /100k
Poverty rate: 33/100 (F) · 11.7%
Bachelor's+ share: 19/100 (F) · 14.7%
Where Waupun sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Waupun'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 - Waupun highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Waupun, WI (this city): home $167,700, crime 662/100k
Fredericksburg, TX : home $442,800, crime 640/100k
Lansing, KS : home $247,500, crime 749/100k
Ocean City, NJ : home $719,100, crime 2,178/100k
Two Rivers, WI : home $121,800, crime 700/100k
Oregon, WI : home $361,200, crime 321/100k
Platteville, WI : home $186,900, crime 1,641/100k
Marinette, WI : home $111,600, crime 1,842/100k
Holmen, WI : home $262,600, crime 513/100k
Burlington, WI : home $268,300, crime 1,060/100k
How does Waupun compare to other US cities?
Waupun measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income46% higher than other cities
Home value33% pricier than other cities
Median rent29% pricier than other cities
Safety78% 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, Waupun ranks #72 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 Waupun 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 Waupun near the bottom of Wisconsin's cities
Among the 761 Wisconsin cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Waupun ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Waupun only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#395 of 753
48th percentile in Wisconsin
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 761
0th percentile in Wisconsin
Median Home Value
#418 of 754
45th percentile in Wisconsin
Poverty Rate
#132 of 761
82nd percentile in Wisconsin
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#530 of 761
30th 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
46th percentile nationally for median household income · 78th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Waupun's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Waupun'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 Waupun's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$167,700Among the most affordablemore affordable than 67% 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
Waupun's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,018 of 15,516
More affordable than 74% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#362 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.5×, Waupun sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,018 of 15,516 and #362 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
$66,931Waupun, WI median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Waupun, 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 Waupun, WI.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)14.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)11.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)52.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
11,244
Median Income
$66,931
Median Home Value
$167,700
Median Age
38.5
Poverty Rate
11.7%
Labor force participation
52.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
14.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
662.2
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
285.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
377.1
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
Waupun's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
11,574 residents
2021
11,027 residents
2022
11,099 residents
2023
11,146 residents
2024
11,177 residents
2025
11,150 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
1
housing units authorized
Single-Family
1
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2022
33
7
26
$7.4M
2023
2
2
0
$0.9M
2024
1
1
0
$0.3M
Permit volume decreased 97% from 2022 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
79.5%
Carpool
8.6%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
3.6%
Work from Home
6.8%
Other
1.5%
Based on 4,799 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 Waupun. 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 Waupun 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 Waupun sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Waupun 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.