Waupun, WI has a B safety grade (68/100) with a violent crime rate of 285 per 100,000, 19% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · mid-size city
Waupun (10,873 people) sits in the mid-size municipal band. This page opens with per-100,000 FBI UCR rates, then WI and national benchmarks.
Data updated 2026-08-24
Waupun, WI carries a PlainCrime B safety grade with violent crime 19% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Waupun, WI shows violent crime at 285.1 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 377.1 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 19% below the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade B from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
2020–2024 direction
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 116.2 per 100,000 in 2020 to 285.1 in 2024 (+145.3%). The highest observed value was 285.1 in 2024 and the lowest 106.5 in 2021. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Offense mix
Violent offenses are 43.1% of the 72 Part I offenses reported in Waupun for 2024, against a median of 12.0% across comparable Wisconsin cities — a gap of 31.0 points. Offense mix is shaped by which agencies report and how incidents are classified as well as by the underlying offenses, so it describes the reported record rather than a settled difference in conditions.
Position in the state cohort
At 285.1 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Waupun ranks 28 of 222 — above 194 of the 221 other Wisconsin cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +166.3% against the cohort median of 107.1. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Comparable rate records
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Waupun's 285.1 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Kenosha (285.7), Colby-Abbotsford (282.0), Glendale (295.1), Fitchburg (275.0). These are same-year agency submissions that pass the same completeness screen, not a claim that the cities have identical conditions. They make the cohort position above checkable against named records instead of a generic state average.
Property-offense composition
Larceny-theft is 73.2% of reported property offenses in Waupun, against a cohort median of 88.4%. The remainder is burglary (6) and motor vehicle theft (5). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Waupun's FBI UCR Table 8 municipal row keeps violent and property totals in a closer balance. Per-100,000 rates use the reporting-year population on that row; incomplete reporters stay out of rate rankings. A citywide figure rarely describes any single neighbourhood inside the municipal boundary.
Mid-size municipal totals above are reported offenses, not safety advice for any single block. Reporting completeness still varies by year and agency.
Across 4.7 Census sq mi, Waupun logged 8.8 property and 6.6 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Waupun leans on larceny-theft at 42% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,193.
Violent offenses are 43% of the municipal total - a violence-heavy book for a mid-size city.
Waupun offense mix (2024)
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (4.7 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
| Offense | Count | Rate /100K |
|---|---|---|
| Property Crime | 41 | 377.1 |
| Larceny-Theft | 30 | 275.9 |
| Burglary | 6 | 55.2 |
| Motor Vehicle Theft | 5 | 46 |
| Arson | 1 | 9.2 |
| Violent Crime | 31 | 285.1 |
| Aggravated Assault | 26 | 239.1 |
| Rape | 4 | 36.8 |
| Murder | 1 | 9.2 |
| Robbery | 0 | 0 |
Secondary series · rose · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR
Lead series · fell across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
| Year | Coverage | Population | Violent Rate | Property Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Comparable | 11,184 | 116.2 | 384.5 |
| 2021 | Comparable | 11,264 | 106.5 | 452.8 |
| 2022 | Comparable | 11,530 | 156.1 | 277.5 |
| 2023 | Comparable | 10,519 | 152.1 | 389.8 |
| 2024 | Comparable | 10,873 | 285.1 | 377.1 |
Waupun Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Waupun's 72 reported offenses (5-year span 2020-2024).
This agency reports via NIBRS, the incident-based system that captures more detail per offense (multiple crimes per incident, victim/offender data) than the older summary counts.
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Wisconsin cities closest to Waupun in population. Their populations run from 10,259 to 11,195, against 10,873 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.
Waupun sits at 285.1/100K violent (grade B); the Wisconsin cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.
Waupun at 285.1/100K violent and 377.1/100K property - matched below outside Wisconsin (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
285.1/100K here; nearest out-of-state matches.
377.1/100K here; violent-rate peers above excluded.
In 2024, Waupun reported 31 violent crimes and 41 property crimes, for a total of 72 reported offenses.
From 2023 to 2024, Waupun's violent crime rate increased by 87.4%, and the property crime rate decreased by 3.3%.
The most common crime type in Waupun is larceny-theft, accounting for 41.7% of all reported crimes (30 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Waupun figures are FBI UCR CIUS Table 8 (vintage 2024), population-adjusted per 100,000.
Denominators are the reporting-year population on the municipal row. Incomplete years are dropped from rankings. Confirm at FBI Crime Data Explorer and Census.gov QuickFacts.
Disclaimer (mid-size municipal): figures are informational, not advice. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program is the source. Consult a professional before decisions.
Mid-size rate methodology for how Waupun's mid-size city row is sourced and ranked.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Waupun, WI rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.
Bulk download: city crime dataset (CSV/JSON)
Every figure on PlainCrime is rendered directly from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) source data, no number is typed in by an editor. Waupun is scored in the mid-size municipal band (10,873 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.