Chippewa County, WI

County Profile

66,799 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Chippewa County, WI.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

73out of 100
Area Score
Top 14% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 11% of 1,255 counties78
SchoolsTop 27% of 973 counties69
Growth773rd of 1,226 counties43
Housing affordabilityTop 44% of 1,255 counties95
Climate1184th of 1,254 counties53
Physical resilienceTop 17% of 1,255 counties83
AccessTop 22% of 1,255 counties92
Economic stabilityTop 28% of 1,255 counties76
The quick read

Chippewa County ranks in the top 11% of published profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.2% and median household income of $74,680.

Residential permitting has slowed: 235 units authorized over the past twelve months, 33% below the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published profiles, placing Chippewa County in the top 17% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
66,799
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$74,680
Top 27% nationally
Density
66/sq mi
1008.4 sq mi of land
Median age
42.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Chippewa County
Wisconsin
Metro area
Eau Claire, WI
Nearest major airport
EAU
17 mi · Chippewa Valley Rgnl
Median home value
$257,900
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.2% is lower than 90% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment grew 1.3% over the past year, to 33,822 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$2,973$74,680Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,286$38,156Top 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate10.2%Bottom 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute23.9 minBottom 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher24.2%Top 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment33,822Bottom 43%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.8%Top 31%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)1.3%Top 12%June 2026
Labor force34,952Bottom 43%June 2026
Labor force participation63.2%Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.1%Top 46%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.2%Bottom 10%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.52.4
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.2% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202475k63k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $74,680 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Eau Claire, WI
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides2,890$34,340
Retail Salespersons2,650$34,000
Registered Nurses2,420$93,410
Fast Food and Counter Workers2,370$28,070
Cashiers2,190$31,440
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand2,160$45,320

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

45% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 38% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.4 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
28
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.4
across all schools here
Math proficiency
45.3%
Top 22% in Wisconsin
Reading proficiency
38.4%
Top 38% in Wisconsin
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Chippewa Falls HighChippewa Falls Area Unified School District1,45116.3
Chippewa Falls MiddleChippewa Falls Area Unified School District99914.126%36%
Bloomer ElementaryBloomer School District52113.445%37%
Stanley ElementaryStanley-Boyd Area School District43712.962%46%
Cadott ElementaryCadott Community School District43612.154%32%
Bloomer HighBloomer School District40014.8
Parkview ElementaryChippewa Falls Area Unified School District37712.637%27%
Halmstad ElementaryChippewa Falls Area Unified School District35512.753%37%
Bloomer MiddleBloomer School District35014.019%44%
Hillcrest ElementaryChippewa Falls Area Unified School District34413.845%34%
Stanley-Boyd HighStanley-Boyd Area School District34113.6
Stillson ElementaryChippewa Falls Area Unified School District33815.474%58%

37.5% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Wisconsin’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $963 takes 15% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.5 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
15.5%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$963
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$257,900
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.45Top 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate74.2%Bottom 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±14729,366Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$36$963Top 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$10,011$257,900Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income15.5%Bottom 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.6%Bottom 17%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
43/ 100
Ranks 773 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, measured from 2022 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has grown 1% since 2020, reaching 67,323 in 2024.

Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 17% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 3.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
235
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
3.5
Top 43% nationally
Year over year
−33%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
17.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202467k66k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
2022202320242025368218
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−25%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 83°F and January a low of 6°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 33.0 inches, including 55.4 inches of snow.

-10°10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station EAU CLAIRE RGNL AP, 17.2 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation33.0"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall55.4"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low6°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high83°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing57°F1991-2020 Normals

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today.

Physical risk

83 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, tornado and strong wind.

Strong windModerate
HailModerate
Inland floodingModerate
TornadoModerate
LightningModerate

Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, landslide, winter weather, heat wave, ice storm, wildfire, drought, earthquake.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Chippewa County records 1.8 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, lower than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 9.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 8.2 per 100,000 residents in Chippewa County.

Homicide
1.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
9.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
8.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
23.9
per 100,000 residents

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Chippewa County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Chippewa County rather than Chippewa County itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 17 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Chippewa Valley RgnlEAU17 mi8,101 ft
La Crosse RgnlLSE82 mi8,742 ft
Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-ChamberlainMSP96 mi11,006 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
73
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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

Cities in Chippewa County, WI