The Safest Small Towns In Wisconsin
Evansville has posted zero murders across recent FBI reporting years. Somerset sits along the Apple River with violent crime close to nonexistent. New Glarus is the Swiss village southwest of Madison where violent crime stays at zero in recent data. Waunakee has watched its property crime fall sharply over the past several years. Up on Lake Superior, the Town of Washburn beats both state and national averages across every category. All six are small enough that neighbors still know one another, which is what residents credit first.
Evansville
Evansville sits about 23 miles south of Madison in Rock County, a city of 5,703 residents at the 2020 census. Its Historic District, on the National Register since 1978, holds one of the best-preserved collections of 1840s-to-1915 architecture of any small city in the state. What residents credit for the safety here is scale and familiarity: a population small enough that people recognize one another, paired with a rural-suburban setting that keeps incidents rare. In the most recent FBI data, Evansville reported zero murders and among the lowest violent crime counts of any Wisconsin community its size. That record has made it a regular fixture near the top of the state's safest-places rankings.
Oconomowoc
Set in Waukesha County's Lake Country between Fowler Lake and Lac La Belle, Oconomowoc was a Gilded Age resort town that kept its historic downtown intact. Settlement here dates to the 1830s, and that long stretch of community stability is part of what residents tie to the town's safety today. Its violent crime rate runs far below the national average, with murders effectively absent from recent reporting years, and property crime sits well under what comparable cities record. The police department leans on visible patrols and neighborhood watch partnerships with local schools. Independent safety rankings routinely place Oconomowoc among the safest cities in Wisconsin.
Waunakee
Waunakee sits in Dane County a few miles north of Lake Mendota, a village that bills itself as the only Waunakee in the world. The story here is trajectory as much as any single year's numbers. Property crime has fallen sharply over the past several years, and Waunakee was among a handful of Dane County communities to report zero motor vehicle thefts in the latest data. A highly rated school system and steady family-oriented growth reinforce the town's reputation. Across the major crime categories, Waunakee reports rates well below the national average, and it consistently ranks near the top of statewide safety lists.
Somerset
Somerset sits along the Apple River in St. Croix County, bordered to the west by the St. Croix and roughly 20 minutes from St. Paul, Minnesota. The village and surrounding township offer a spread of rural housing, including riverfront apartments and prairie lots with generous yards, in one of the fastest-growing counties in the state. Working farms with crops and cattle share the countryside with hobby farms running llamas and horses. Violence is close to nonexistent here: Somerset has reported near-zero violent crimes in recent years, with property crime among the lowest in Wisconsin. Local police coordinate closely with the county sheriff's office, which keeps response times fast across a wide rural area.
New Glarus
New Glarus sits in Green County about 25 miles southwest of Madison, a village of 2,266 residents founded in 1845 by immigrants from the Swiss canton of Glarus. The Swiss heritage still shapes the place, from the chalet-style storefronts downtown to the Swiss Historical Village Museum and the festivals that fill the calendar. On the measure that counts most for this list, New Glarus holds up well: its violent crime rate sits below both the state and national averages, and recent FBI reporting shows no violent crimes at all in the village. The scale is a big part of it, with a couple thousand residents packed into under two square miles where people tend to know their neighbors. Property crime ticks up a little with the tourist traffic the town draws, but violence stays close to absent.
Washburn
The Town of Washburn is a rural, largely agricultural community just west of Highway 13, next to the separate City of Washburn and near Ashland. It sits about 12 miles south of Bayfield and 70 miles east of Duluth, Minnesota, and Superior, Wisconsin. Lake Superior and Chequamegon Bay are on its doorstep, with the Chequamegon National Forest, the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, and the Mount Valhalla trails all a short drive away.
The safety picture here mirrors Somerset's: a small, stable population where neighbors know and watch out for one another, which keeps incidents rare and help close at hand. In the most recent FBI data, total, violent, and property crime in the Town all came in below both state and national averages. No community is entirely without crime, but by the numbers Washburn ranks among the safer small towns in Wisconsin to live, work, and raise a family.
Safety In Wisconsin's Small Towns
The same factors keep surfacing across these towns: populations small enough for people to recognize one another, and crime rates that sit well below the national average. The lake country of the south and the Lake Superior shoreline in the north share a low-incident character that draws families and retirees looking to settle somewhere secure. Taken together, these six places make a strong case that in Wisconsin, safety and small-town living tend to arrive as a package.
