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Place dossier plate
SheetWI-WEST-SALEM-WI · West Salem, WI 5,268 pop · income 72nd 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 West Salem
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest West Salem on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Prairie du Ch… · lowest
52,670
Prairie du Ch… · lowest
52,670 median HH income
41.3% of the leader · rank #1
Avon · near
90,987
Avon · near
90,987 median HH income
71.3% of the leader · rank #2
West Salem · this city
90,991
West Salem · this city
90,991 median HH income
71.3% of the leader · rank #3
Indialantic · near
90,991
Indialantic · near
90,991 median HH income
71.3% of the leader · rank #4
Glenaire · near
91,000
Glenaire · near
91,000 median HH income
71.3% of the leader · rank #5
Swedesboro · near
91,000
Swedesboro · near
91,000 median HH income
71.3% of the leader · rank #6
Wheatley Heig… · highest
127,589
Wheatley Heig… · highest
127,589 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 West Salem 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: 5,268.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
West Salem - the verdict
West Salem ranks in the 72nd percentile for household income and the 54th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
72nd
percentile, household income
60th
percentile, home value
29th
percentile, median rent
54th
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: West Salem, WI
West Salem is a small town in Wisconsin, home to 5,268 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in West Salem report a median income of $90,991 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 4.9%. West Salem's housing stock carries a median value of $269,300, and the median resident age is 40.5 years. About 44.1% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 64.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 6 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 54% from five years earlier. West Salem reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 1244.1 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. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,097 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Wisconsin run around $225, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 59.1 out of 100 (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of West Salem'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 reported crime to schools and households to work and mobility to housing and income to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For West Salem, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, commute-mode shares, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count.
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 West Salem growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -44 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 6 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
What can the FBI record say about safety in West Salem?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1244.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 45% 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.
What does the education layer cover for West Salem?
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 3 public schools within the city match. 44.1% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for West Salem?
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 Bristol (5,196 residents, $109,917 income); Tichigan (5,173 residents, $124,821 income); Mayville (5,169 residents, $66,453 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Peppermill, MD (5,268 residents); Firthcliffe, NY (5,268 residents); Lehighton, PA (5,268 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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in West Salem?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 81.6%. 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.
Drive alone
81.6%
Work from home
13.2%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 2,501 workers age 16+.
How far does income reach against housing in West Salem?
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 4.9%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
3.0×
Home value
$269,300
Household income
$90,991
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Above median income · poverty 4.9% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
94.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Wisconsin average
B
City profile score · West Salem, WI
70/100
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 B+
44.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income B
$90,991
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 B-
113 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate B-
4.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
West Salem profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 79/100 (B+) · 44.1%
Household income: 70/100 (B) · $90,991
Cost of living: 68/100 (B-) · 94.1 index
Violent crime: 68/100 (B-) · 113 /100k
Poverty rate: 66/100 (B-) · 4.9%
Where West Salem sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
West Salem'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 - West Salem highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
West Salem, WI (this city): home $269,300, crime 1,244/100k
Lehighton, PA : home $198,600, crime 1,312/100k
Medina, TN : home $261,400, crime 407/100k
La Crescent, MN : home $244,500, crime 512/100k
Mayville, WI : home $184,800, crime 449/100k
North Fond du Lac, WI : home $144,900, crime 802/100k
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 West Salem compare to other US cities?
West Salem measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income72% higher than other cities
Home value60% pricier than other cities
Median rent29% pricier than other cities
Safety54% 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, West Salem ranks #125 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 West Salem 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 West Salem near the bottom of Wisconsin's cities
Among the 761 Wisconsin cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, West Salem ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares West Salem only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#129 of 753
83rd percentile in Wisconsin
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 761
0th percentile in Wisconsin
Median Home Value
#157 of 754
79th percentile in Wisconsin
Poverty Rate
#402 of 761
46th percentile in Wisconsin
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#77 of 761
90th 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
72nd percentile nationally for median household income · 54th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
West Salem's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
West Salem'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 West Salem's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$269,30040th percentilemore affordable than 40% 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
West Salem's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#6,471 of 15,516
More affordable than 58% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#5,506 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.0×, West Salem sits in the affordable band:
national rank #6,471 of 15,516 and #5,506 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$90,991West Salem, WI median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context West Salem, 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 West Salem, WI.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)44.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)4.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)64.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
5,268
Median Income
$90,991
Median Home Value
$269,300
Median Age
40.5
Poverty Rate
4.9%
Labor force participation
64.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
44.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1244.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
113.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1131.0
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
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
West Salem's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
5,332 residents
2021
5,355 residents
2022
5,337 residents
2023
5,314 residents
2024
5,304 residents
2025
5,288 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
6
housing units authorized
Single-Family
2
detached homes
Multifamily
4
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2022
13
3
10
$3.0M
2023
7
5
2
$1.4M
2024
6
2
4
$2.7M
Permit volume decreased 54% from 2022 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
81.6%
Carpool
4.6%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.6%
Work from Home
13.2%
Based on 2,501 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 West Salem. 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 West Salem 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 West Salem sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How West Salem 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.