Photo: Corey Coyle · CC BY 3.0In Cottage Grove, the kinds of crime the grade counts rose 154% per resident from 2023 to 2025
Its Safety Grade, A (#25 of 175 graded towns in Wisconsin), rests on crimes its police reported from 2023 to 2025: less crime per resident than 87% of U.S. towns. Violence and property crime split as 0.8 violent crime and 3.2 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents a year, beside 3.6 and 15.0 in the rest of Wisconsin. Add to that, on violence it beats 74% of U.S. towns, and on property crime 89%.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of WI” is every other Wisconsin city and town in the FBI’s tables; the U.S. figure is the FBI’s national estimate as published, averaged over the three years. The FBI publishes no national homicide or robbery rate in our data, so those compare with all U.S. cities and towns in its tables.
What stands out about safety in Cottage Grove
Reported crime is rising
Crime reported per resident rose from 2023 to 2025 by more than ordinary year-to-year swings, on the grade’s own score. Trend ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Cottage Grove’s grade
Property crimes plus four times violent crimes reported to the FBI per resident, 2023–2025, on a national curve. Both violent and property crime are lower than in most U.S. towns; property crime is the stronger of the two.
Reported crime per resident, 2023 to 2025
Show as a table
| Year | Cottage Grove property | Rest of Wisconsin property | Cottage Grove violent | Rest of Wisconsin violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.5 | 18.2 | 0.4 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 1.4 | 16.0 | 0.4 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 4.5 | 15.5 | 1.2 | 3.8 |
| 2025 | 3.8 | 13.5 | 0.8 | 3.2 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Reported crime per resident rose from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings. Per 1,000 residents, 2022–2025, against the rest of Wisconsin.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Cottage Grove | Rest of Wisconsin | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 0.4 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 0.4 | 3.9 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 1.2 | 3.8 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 0.8 | 3.2 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Cottage Grove’s police reported 23 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 0.8 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.6 in the rest of Wisconsin and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Cottage Grove per 1,000 residents
Violent crime per 1,000 residents, 2025
Property crime per 1,000 residents, 2025
Crimes reported to police in 2025 per resident; one person can be the victim of more than one, and some reports involve visitors.
And about 1 violent crime, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
44 crimes reported in 2025
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
8 violent and 36 property, as reported to the FBI by Cottage Grove’s police.
No one died in a crash on Cottage Grove’s roads in 2019–2023
That is about what is typical for Wisconsin towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (3.5 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Cottage Grove’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Cottage Grove’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Deaths are counted where the crash happened, not where the people lived: a highway through town adds through-traffic deaths, and residents’ own risk on roads elsewhere isn’t here. Town rates sit below state and U.S. rates because a third of fatal crashes happen outside any town. Road safety is described here and is not part of the Safety Grade. Source: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2019–2023.
Cottage Grove and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cottage Grove | A | 0.8 | 3.2 |
| Cottage Grove (township) | — | — | — |
| Sun Prairie | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Cottage Grove (township) and Sun Prairie have no FBI figures of their own for 2023–2025.
Wisconsin towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cottage Grove | A | 0.8 | 3.2 |
| Plymouth | A− | 0.1 | 7.2 |
| McFarland | A− | 0.6 | 6.8 |
| St. Francis | B | 1.4 | 10.5 |
| Lake Geneva | B− | 1.1 | 14.8 |
| Rice Lake | C | 3.6 | 12.6 |
The five graded Wisconsin towns closest to Cottage Grove’s population (8,930), by grade.
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- It’s reported crime. Only incidents reported to and recorded by police appear here. Many crimes are never reported to police.
- One number for all of Cottage Grove. A town-wide rate doesn’t show where incidents happen, and that can differ a lot from one part of town to another.
- Visitors count too. Incidents involving people who work, shop or visit are counted against Cottage Grove’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (9,444 in 2025); our figure for Cottage Grove is 8,930 (2025 Census estimate).
- Gaps are real gaps. A missing year means the department didn’t report a full year, not that nothing happened.
How the grade is calculated, for every town: How TownRatings grades safety →
Questions about safety in Cottage Grove
Is Cottage Grove, WI safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Cottage Grove reports less crime per resident than 87% of U.S. towns, an A Safety Grade and #25 of 175 in Wisconsin. Its police reported 0.8 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.6 in the rest of Wisconsin and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Cottage Grove?
0.8 violent and 3.2 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Wisconsin reports 3.6 and 15.0; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Who polices Cottage Grove?
Cottage Grove’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Cottage Grove”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
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Neighbors looking out for each other in Cottage Grove.
Crime: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Crime Data Explorer: offenses known to law enforcement by city, 2025, and state and national rates. Counts are crimes reported to police, not convictions. The Safety Grade is our own summary of that data, not an official rating. Road deaths: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2019–2023. This isn’t an official statement of public safety. In an emergency, call 911.