Wisconsin Crime Rates: Safest & Most Dangerous Cities

Crime data for 222 cities and 67 counties in Wisconsin (WI), ranked from safest to most dangerous. Data from 461 law enforcement agencies.

FBI UCR Data Snapshot: Wisconsin

Wisconsin (WI) reported 16,669 violent crimes and 68,956 property crimes in 2024, based on FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program submissions from 461 law enforcement agencies. That translates to a statewide violent crime rate of 279.6 per 100,000 residents and a property crime rate of 1156.8 per 100,000 against a reporting population of 5,960,975. The PlainCrime dataset indexes 222 Wisconsin cities and 67 counties, each with their own detail pages and local crime figures drawn from FBI UCR Tables 8 and 10.

Within the statewide violent crime total, aggravated assault accounted for 0 incidents, robbery 0, murder and non-negligent manslaughter 0, and rape 0. Property crime splits across larceny-theft (0), burglary (0), motor vehicle theft (0), and arson (0).

Across 11 years of state-level UCR history (2014–2024), the violent crime rate moved from 283.5 to 279.6 per 100,000 — a decline of 1.4%. City-level detail pages within Wisconsin include safety grades (A+ to F), benchmarks against national averages, per-capita risk estimates, and multi-year trend tables for users comparing specific jurisdictions. All figures above are drawn from FBI UCR 2024 submissions; reporting completeness varies by agency, and the FBI periodically restates prior-year figures as late submissions arrive.

Violent Crime Rate
279.6/100K
Property Crime Rate
1156.8/100K
Population
5,960,975
Data Year
2024

Safest Cities

Top 50 by lowest violent crime rate

Most Dangerous Cities

Top 50 by highest violent crime rate

Crime Trends

Multi-year charts & analysis

Crime Trends

Year Population Violent Crime Rate Property Crime Rate
2024 5,960,975 16,669 279.6 68,956 1156.8
2023 5,910,955 17,695 299.4 73,255 1239.3
2022 5,892,539 17,934 304.4 80,844 1372
2021 5,895,908 18,914 320.8 88,960 1508.8
2020 5,832,655 18,999 325.7 86,684 1486.2
2019 5,822,434 17,149 294.5 84,858 1457.4
2018 5,813,568 17,374 298.9 91,561 1575
2017 5,795,483 18,601 321 105,179 1814.8
2016 5,778,708 17,464 302.2 111,906 1936.5
2015 5,771,337 17,080 295.9 110,430 1913.4
2014 5,757,564 16,325 283.5 117,677 2043.9

Cities in Wisconsin

City Population
Milwaukee 560,416
Madison 282,045
Green Bay 105,240
Kenosha 97,652
Racine 76,243
Appleton 74,394
Eau Claire 70,891
Waukesha 70,202
Janesville 66,247
Oshkosh 65,994
West Allis 58,862
La Crosse 50,893
Sheboygan 49,610
Wauwatosa 46,968
Fond du Lac 44,164
Brookfield 42,019
New Berlin 40,186
Menomonee Falls 40,076
Wausau 39,949
Sun Prairie 38,519
Oak Creek 37,665
Greenfield 36,919
Beloit 36,231
Franklin 35,535
Manitowoc 34,546
Fitchburg 32,727
West Bend 31,947
Mount Pleasant 27,731
Neenah 27,480
Superior 26,310
Stevens Point 25,784
Mequon 25,586
Muskego 25,389
Caledonia 25,323
De Pere 25,319
Grand Chute 24,397
Fox Valley Metro 23,754
Middleton 23,353
Watertown 22,612
Pleasant Prairie 21,981
Germantown 21,066
South Milwaukee 20,178
Onalaska 19,068
Fox Crossing 18,926
Oconomowoc 18,830
Marshfield 18,669
Wisconsin Rapids 18,602
Hobart-Lawrence 18,035
Menasha 18,008
Cudahy 17,683
Kaukauna 17,622
River Falls 17,171
Ashwaubenon 16,992
Menomonie 16,595
Beaver Dam 16,473
Verona 16,443
Hartford 15,959
Hudson 15,714
Whitewater 15,473
Waunakee 15,227
Chippewa Falls 14,626
Whitefish Bay 14,537
Greendale 14,461
Plover 14,306
Shorewood 13,629
Stoughton 12,996
Port Washington 12,888
Glendale 12,877
Grafton 12,788
Cedarburg 12,649
Brown Deer 12,636
Fort Atkinson 12,274
Holmen 11,889
Oregon 11,833
Deforest 11,195
Two Rivers 11,138
Burlington 11,042
Marinette 11,023
Platteville 10,907
New Richmond 10,890
Waupun 10,873
Monroe 10,373
Hartland 10,259
Reedsburg 10,243
Elkhorn 10,218
Delavan 10,091
Portage 9,978
Sturgeon Bay 9,928
Sparta 9,781
Altoona 9,623
McFarland 9,602
St. Francis 9,524
Cottage Grove 9,518
Tomah 9,414
Shawano 9,236
Merrill 9,006
Rice Lake 8,997
Plymouth 8,897
Lake Geneva 8,816
Kronenwetter 8,597
Showing 100 of 222 cities (sorted by population)

Nearby States

Compare Wisconsin with neighboring states, or use the compare tool for side-by-side jurisdiction benchmarking.

Primary source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, Crime in the United States annual release. State-level trends cross-check against the FBI Crime Data Explorer (CDE) API.

Population figures for rate calculations reference U.S. Census Bureau estimates where FBI-reported populations are unavailable. Verify with Census.gov QuickFacts.

Using PlainCrime rankings responsibly

Crime rankings are most useful when they sit alongside other community-quality signals — school performance, housing affordability, employment, and access to healthcare. A safer-than-average violent-crime rate in a small commuter suburb does not by itself make a city a better place to live; it is one data point among many. Likewise, a higher-than-average rate in a dense urban center may reflect that residents and visitors interact with police more often, not that the city is necessarily unsafe for its residents. We provide cross-links from each city profile to neighboring jurisdictions, state averages, and national benchmarks so you can read each number in context rather than in isolation.

For news outlets, researchers, and concerned residents who cite our rankings, the most defensible approach is to quote the per-100,000 rate, the reporting year, and the source agency in the same sentence. Avoid framing crime statistics as predictive — UCR data describes what was reported in a past year, not what will happen tomorrow. Where possible, pair our rankings with longitudinal trend data on the relevant city's profile page to show whether the rate is moving up, holding steady, or falling year over year.