Ozaukee County, WI

County Profile

92,966 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Ozaukee 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.

80out of 100
Area Score
Top 2% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 7% of 1,255 counties measured81
SchoolsTop 3% of 973 counties measured91
GrowthTop 36% of 1,226 counties measured58
Housing affordability771st of 1,255 counties measured88
Climate1174th of 1,254 counties measured53
Physical resilienceTop 1% of 1,255 counties measured97
Access820th of 1,255 counties measured74
Economic stabilityTop 5% of 1,255 counties measured94
The quick read

Ozaukee County ranks in the top 7% of published profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.1% and median household income of $96,996.

472 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 13% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published profiles, placing Ozaukee County in the top 1% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
92,966
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$96,996
Top 6% nationally
Density
399/sq mi
233.0 sq mi of land
Median age
43.9
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Ozaukee County
Wisconsin
Metro area
Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI
Nearest major airport
OSH
49 mi · Wittman Rgnl
Median home value
$390,200
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.1% is lower than 92% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment grew 0.4% over the past year, to 48,830 employed residents.

51% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 97% of measured US locations.

Household income is higher than at least 94% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$3,696$96,996Top 6%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,042$59,040Top 2%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate5.0%Bottom 1%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.6 minBottom 42%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher51.2%Top 3%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment48,830Top 45%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.9%Bottom 35%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.4%Top 24%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force50,407Top 45%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation65.7%Top 16%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.0%Bottom 45%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate3.1%Bottom 8%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/063.81.7
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.1% 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
202120222023202497k87k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $96,996 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 — Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides30,090$37,020
Registered Nurses22,400$97,360
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand19,810$44,840
Retail Salespersons18,850$34,410
Fast Food and Counter Workers17,490$28,440
Cashiers15,050$30,400

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.

64% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 58% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.8 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
25
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
64.1%
Top 1% in Wisconsin
Reading proficiency
58.4%
Top 1% in Wisconsin
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Homestead HighMequon-Thiensville School District1,20416.7
Cedarburg HighCedarburg School District1,07316.0
Port Washington HighPort Washington-Saukville School District80914.7
Grafton HighGrafton School District72715.8
Webster MiddleCedarburg School District69216.572%62%
Thomas Jefferson MiddlePort Washington-Saukville School District67712.347%54%
Wilson ElementaryMequon-Thiensville School District55815.166%53%
Donges Bay ElementaryMequon-Thiensville School District53913.871%64%
Thorson ElementaryCedarburg School District52916.083%69%
Kennedy ElementaryGrafton School District50716.476%54%
Woodview ElementaryGrafton School District50614.974%53%
Parkview ElementaryCedarburg School District50416.384%71%

15.1% 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 $1,154 takes 14% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.0 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
14.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.0×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,154
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$390,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income4.02Top 20%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate72.9%Bottom 42%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±5239,872Top 21%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$33$1,154Top 19%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$8,212$390,200Top 10%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income14.3%Bottom 19%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate3.9%Bottom 2%of 3,2222024 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
58/ 100
Top 36% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is broadly steady, measured from 2020 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 3% since 2020, reaching 93,956 in 2024.

At 5.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
472
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
5.1
Top 29% nationally
Year over year
−13%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
32.4%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202494k92k
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
202020212022202320242025590277
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+39%).

Weather & climate

4 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 80°F and January a low of 12°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 29.4 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 37, in the Good band, and about 9 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

0°20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station SHEBOYGAN CO MEM AP, 18.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index61.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation29.4"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low12°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high80°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months41991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10092024 calendar year
Median air quality index37.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing50°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
37
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
61
90th percentile index
Days above 100
9
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

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. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

97 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are hail and lightning.

HailModerate
LightningModerate

Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, tornado, inland flooding, heat wave, winter weather, strong wind, coastal flooding, earthquake, drought, ice storm, wildfire, landslide, hurricane.

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.

Ozaukee County records 2.0 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 11.4 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 9.6 per 100,000 residents in Ozaukee County.

Homicide
2.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
11.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
9.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
13.9
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 Ozaukee 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 Ozaukee County rather than Ozaukee 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
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes and full cost of living
No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. 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. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 49 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Wittman RgnlOSH49 mi8,002 ft
Appleton IntlATW62 mi8,003 ft
Green Bay/Austin Straubel IntlGRB69 mi8,700 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
80
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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
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

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.