Frank Eugene Nichols House · Photo: Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 3.0Onalaska reports less violent crime than most U.S. towns, but more property crime
Overall, Onalaska grades C+ for safety (#148 of 175 graded towns in Wisconsin): more crime per resident than 64% of U.S. towns, on crimes its police reported to the FBI in 2023–2025.
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 Onalaska
1 of the 2 graded towns next door reports less crime
Of the 5 Wisconsin towns on Onalaska’s borders, 2 have a Safety Grade: Holmen (A), La Crosse (D). Onalaska (township), Medary and Hamilton have no FBI figures of their own for 2023–2025. Neighbors ↓
Among Wisconsin towns, lower
Wisconsin’s cities and towns report less crime than most states’, so Onalaska’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 15% of the 175 Wisconsin towns we grade, against 36% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
Reported crime is falling
Crime reported per resident fell 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 Onalaska’s grade
Property crimes plus four times violent crimes reported to the FBI per resident, 2023–2025, on a national curve. Violent crime holds Onalaska’s grade up; property crime pulls it down.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Onalaska’s police reported 35 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 0.6 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.6 in the rest of Wisconsin and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Show as a table
| Year | Onalaska | Rest of Wisconsin | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 0.4 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 0.9 | 3.9 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 0.4 | 3.8 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 0.5 | 3.2 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Reported crime is falling
Reported crime per resident fell from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings. Per 1,000 residents, 2022–2025, against the rest of Wisconsin.
Show as a table
| Year | Onalaska property | Rest of Wisconsin property | Onalaska violent | Rest of Wisconsin violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 21.2 | 18.2 | 0.4 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 24.2 | 16.0 | 0.9 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 22.9 | 15.4 | 0.4 | 3.8 |
| 2025 | 20.2 | 13.5 | 0.5 | 3.2 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
For every 1,000 residents, about 20 property crimes reported
And about 1 violent crime, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
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.
419 crimes reported in 2025
11 violent and 408 property, as reported to the FBI by Onalaska’s police.
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
Five people died in crashes on Onalaska’s roads in 2019–2023
Onalaska had 5 fatal crashes in five years, in which five people died.
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 Onalaska’s size would see about 3 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Onalaska’s own rate (5.2) 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.
Onalaska and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Onalaska (township), Medary and Hamilton have no FBI figures of their own for 2023–2025.
Wisconsin towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Onalaska | C+ | 0.6 | 22.4 |
| Oconomowoc | A | 0.4 | 4.1 |
| Fox Crossing | A− | 0.8 | 6.7 |
| Germantown | B | 0.6 | 11.7 |
| South Milwaukee | B− | 1.4 | 11.5 |
| Marshfield | B− | 2.2 | 10.9 |
The five graded Wisconsin towns closest to Onalaska’s population (20,297), by grade.
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 Onalaska. 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 Onalaska’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (20,165 in 2025); our figure for Onalaska is 20,297 (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 Onalaska
Is Onalaska, WI safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Onalaska reports more crime per resident than 64% of U.S. towns, a C+ Safety Grade and #148 of 175 in Wisconsin. Its police reported 0.6 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 Onalaska?
0.6 violent and 22.4 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Wisconsin reports 3.6 and 14.9; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Is crime going up or down in Onalaska?
Reported crime per resident fell from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings.
Is Onalaska safer than La Crosse?
La Crosse reports more crime per resident than Onalaska: La Crosse grades D for safety and Onalaska C+. La Crosse’s police reported 3.6 violent and 33.1 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Onalaska?
Onalaska’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Onalaska”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Onalaska.
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
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.