Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Boscobel gives you more for your money than most places: a typical home costs about $207K, 3.1 years of the Platteville area’s $67K median household income. It grades C− overall, 337th among Wisconsin's 357 graded towns. The low prices come with trade-offs. The median household income is $54K, and 21% of residents live below the poverty line, and its public schools trail 79% of Wisconsin towns on state tests and graduation. On the plus side, it is more walkable than 77% of U.S. towns. 29% of working residents work locally in Boscobel, against 8.2% in Wisconsin’s towns and 8% across U.S. towns. On health, just 55 of Wisconsin’s 874 towns do worse. Boscobel has 3 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Central House Hotel and Boscobel High School.
Where Boscobel beats most towns.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Wisconsin), ordered by how far Boscobel is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 1,509 in 1870, 3,286 in 2020. The archive holds 11 old photos and papers going back to 1865 and 3 maps from 1933 on.
3 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Who provides power, water and the rest in Boscobel, 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 Boscobel.
Boscobel trades lower home prices for longer drives to work and has more 90° days than almost anywhere else in Wisconsin, but it carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Wisconsin (mostly inland flooding).
Two of its 4 schools are shown below, with the reason for each. The public schools here belong to the Boscobel Area School District. The 4 public schools in Boscobel teach 653 students between them.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boscobel ElementaryLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 311 | C |
| Boscobel HighLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 182 | C− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within WI on state tests and graduation
Homes are within reach (about $207K for the typical one, A− for cost of living), but half of working residents commute more than 21 miles.
Over the 12 months to September 2026, the typical home gained 3.4% in value. Among households in Boscobel, 53% live in a home they own. On the market locally: a median 146 days to sell.
| Boscobel | Wisconsin towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 53% | 74% | 73% |
| Median rent | $655 a month | $1,080 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Against the 7,143 U.S. towns with household incomes like Boscobel’s, it is less healthy than 55%, so its C− isn’t only a matter of income.
Boscobel: 45% of adults have obesity. Only 10 of the 357 Wisconsin towns we compare have a higher share of adults who smoke cigarettes than Boscobel.
| Boscobel | Wisconsin towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 35% | 26% | 25% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 45% | 38% | 35% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 14% | 14% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 37% | 32% | 36% |
| What stands out | Boscobel | WI |
|---|---|---|
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 13.9% | 9.9% |
| More adults facing a utility shut-off | 7.5% | 5.5% |
| More smokers | 18% | 13.6% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
The Steuben 4 Se weather station, 7 miles away, records that about 10 days a year reach 90°, the highest of 2,050 Wisconsin places with climate records.
Expect July afternoons of 83° and January nights of 10°, with about 36 inches of snow a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
In Boscobel, the average trip to work is 17 minutes. One in 3 of the town’s working residents works locally. The town had 1,797 jobs in 2023, up 363 from 2013. The top destinations are Madison (6%), Richland Center (5%) and Muscoda (5%).
| Boscobel | Wisconsin towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 17 minutes | 22 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $54,000 | $88,000 | $80,000 |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 93% of Wisconsin towns; that rating is what its C for hazard risk is built on.
Expected losses in Boscobel break down as 62% from inland flooding and 13% from cold waves. In Boscobel, the FEMA hazard score is 63 of 100. The town has had 4 paid flood insurance claims since 2008.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Boscobel’s violent crime rate comes in at 3.4 per 1,000 residents. 11 violent crimes were reported in 2024.
| Boscobel | Wisconsin towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2024) | 3.4 per 1,000 residents | 1.1 | 1.7 |
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2024) | 2.8 per 1,000 residents | 8.1 | 11.5 |
FBI crime data, 2024 · crimes reported to police
Count the trails in 5 parks and preserves and they come to 0.2 miles. The biggest park or preserve is Lower Wisconsin State Riverway, at 333 acres. Boscobel’s concentration of trails stands at 0.1 miles per square mile.
| Boscobel | Wisconsin towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.1 miles per square mile | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 7.3% | 3.8% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Lower Wisconsin State Riverway | — | 333 |
| 2. Kronshage Park | 0.1 mi | 30 |
| 3. Westside Park | 0.1 mi | 3 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
1 within 15 miles of the center of Boscobel
About 1 of every 100 Boscobel residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Wisconsin.
3 places in Boscobel on the National Register of Historic Places.
4 notable people were born in Boscobel.
City in Wisconsin, United States
Boscobel ( BOSS-koh-bel) is a city in Grant County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 3,286 at the 2020 census. Approximately 0.6 mi. (1 km) to the north of the city, across a riparian swamp, is the Wisconsin River. U.S. Route 61 crosses the Wisconsin River at Boscobel. To the south, the city is bordered by the Town of Boscobel. Boscobel was the site of a stop along the now defunct Milwaukee Road, and it is still served by the Wisconsin and Southern Railroad. It is also the site of the Wisconsin Secure Program Facility (WSPF), a Wisconsin Department of Corrections prison for men. Businesses include the historic Central House Hotel, the birthplace of Gideons International.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
2 towns share a border with Boscobel.
| Town | WI rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boscobel · Boscobel | #337 | C− | A− | — | C− | C− |
| Watterstown | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Boscobel reports no FBI crime data of its own. Watterstown isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Boscobel and Boscobel are one community, graded once. Compare Boscobel with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Boscobel grades C− overall, better than 22% of U.S. towns and #337 of 357 in Wisconsin. It grades C− for health and C− for schools. Jobs & income is its weak spot, with a D.
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 A−.
4 notable people were born here, including Philip Bohlman and Nathan Crook Twining.
