Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 3,108.
Wilder gives you more for your money than most places: a typical home costs about $215K, 2.7 years of the Cincinnati metro’s $81K median household income. It grades A overall, 22nd among Kentucky's 138 graded towns. On the plus side, its schools outperform 92% of the state's. 61% of adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more in Wilder, against 26% in Kentucky’s towns and 29% across U.S. towns. On hazard risk, just 21 of Kentucky’s 238 towns do better. Wilder's civic life (library use, community groups, volunteering) trails 86% of U.S. towns.
Where Wilder beats most towns.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Kentucky), ordered by how far Wilder is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 287 in 1940, 3,176 in 2020. The archive holds 1 old photo or paper going back to 1858 and 6 maps from 1898 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Explore the history →Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Wilder. Close and well known come first.
4 mi Stadium & arenaPaycor Stadium
4 mi Stadium & arenaGreat American Ball Park
Big draw23 mi Theme parkKings Island3.5M visitors a year
Big draw30 mi Theme parkArk Encounter
5 mi Stadium & arenaTQL Stadium
6 mi Stadium & arenaNippert StadiumPaycor Stadium: JonRidinger, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Great American Ball Park: Eric Kilby profile at Flickr website, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Kings Island: Eli Duke from Portland, OR, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Ark Encounter: OlinEJ, CC0 · TQL Stadium: Cornfield948, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Nippert Stadium: Ben Levin, CC BY-SA 4.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Wilder, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
Ordered by what stands out in Wilder.
Wilder pairs an A overall with homes cheaper than the Kentucky norm, carries less natural-hazard risk than nearly all of Kentucky (mostly inland flooding) and sends many workers across the state line.
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk lower than 94% of Kentucky towns, with expected losses of about $630 per resident a year; that rating is what its A− for hazard risk is built on.
The FEMA risk score in Wilder is 17 of 100.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Wilder’s property crime rate is 5.2 per 1,000 residents.
| Wilder | Kentucky towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 5.2 per 1,000 residents | 8.3 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 1 per 1,000 residents | 1.3 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Wilder has chilly winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 86°, January nights drop to 24° and about 23 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Against the 10,590 U.S. towns with household incomes like Wilder’s, it is healthier than 81%, so its B isn’t only a matter of income.
Wilder beats the Kentucky average on 14 of 31 CDC measures and trails it on 0. 13% of adults report frequent physical distress in Wilder.
| Wilder | Kentucky towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 15% | 14% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 22% | 27% | 25% |
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 17% | 23% | 19% |
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 5.1% | 7% | 8.1% |
| What stands out | Wilder | KY |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 12.8% | 18.9% |
| Fewer smokers | 14.1% | 18.5% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
33% of working residents cross a state line to work. 18.2% of workers work from home, against 10.2% across Kentucky.
Most working residents leave Wilder for work: only 1% work in town. 19% of Wilder residents live below the poverty line. Jobs based in Wilder fell to 2,032 in 2023, 212 fewer than in 2013.
| Wilder | Kentucky towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 18% | 10% | 11% |
| Working residents who work in town | 1.2% | 15% | 8% |
| Below the poverty line | 19% | 16% | 9.6% |
| Average trip to work | 20 minutes | 22 minutes | 25 minutes |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Wilder grades A overall with a typical home of about $215K, below the Kentucky typical value; only 7 of the 30 Kentucky towns graded A− or better can say that. At 2.7 years of the Cincinnati metro’s $81K median household income, the typical home (about $215K) costs less against local pay than in 84% of Kentucky towns; that ratio is one input to its B+ for cost of living.
The typical Wilder home is worth about $215,000, up 1.8% in a year, 7% below the Kentucky typical home.
| Wilder | Kentucky towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 81% | 59% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,432 a month | $930 a month | $1,185 a month |
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
| Wilder | Kentucky towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.2 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 1.5% | 1.8% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Frederick's Landing Park | — | 14 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
15 within 15 miles of the center of Wilder
About 7 of every 100 Wilder residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Kentucky.
City in Kentucky, United States
Wilder is a home rule-class city in Campbell County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 3,176 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky metropolitan area.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
6 towns share a border with Wilder.
| Town | KY rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wilder | #22 | A | B+ | B+ | A | B |
| Newport | #134 | D | B | D | D− | C− |
| Covington | #72 | C+ | B | C | B+ | C− |
| Taylor Mill | #16 | A | B+ | A | A | C− |
| Southgate | #23 | A | B | B+ | A | B− |
| Highland Heights | #2 | A+ | A | B+ | A | A− |
| Cold Spring | #27 | A− | B− | B− | A | B− |
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
By most measures, yes. Wilder grades A overall, better than 88% of U.S. towns and #22 of 138 in Kentucky. It grades B for health, B+ for safety and A for schools.
Not for the area. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B+.
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