Old Indian Agency House (Boundary Increase) · Photo: Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 3.0Property crime per resident is higher in Portage than in 69% of U.S. towns
In a usual year, 1.3 violent crimes and 16.5 incidents of property crime are logged per 1,000 inhabitants; in the rest of Wisconsin, 3.6 and 15.0. Taking everything together, Portage scores C+ (#131 of 175 graded towns in Wisconsin): close to the middle of U.S. towns, measured on crimes its police reported between 2023 and 2025. Per resident, the graded crimes were down 21% from 2023 to 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 Portage
Among Wisconsin towns, lower
Wisconsin’s cities and towns report less crime than most states’, so Portage’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 25% of the 175 Wisconsin towns we grade, against 43% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
A job center
Portage has 7,250 jobs based in town for 9,956 residents (Census LEHD), so some reports involve people who work or shop there rather than residents. How to read it ↓
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 Portage’s grade
Property crimes plus four times violent crimes reported to the FBI per resident, 2023–2025, on a national curve. Violent crime holds Portage’s grade up; property crime pulls it down. Its property rate (16.5) is below the FBI’s national estimate (17.6) but higher than in most individual towns: the national figure is weighted by people, and the grade counts towns.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Portage | Rest of Wisconsin | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.6 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 2.0 | 3.9 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 0.8 | 3.8 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 1.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Portage’s police reported 39 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 1.3 per 1,000 residents a year, against 3.6 in the rest of Wisconsin and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Reported crime per resident, 2023 to 2025
Show as a table
| Year | Portage property | Rest of Wisconsin property | Portage violent | Rest of Wisconsin violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 19.7 | 18.2 | 1.6 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 16.1 | 16.0 | 2.0 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 20.1 | 15.4 | 0.8 | 3.8 |
| 2025 | 13.1 | 13.5 | 1.1 | 3.2 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
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.
Crime in Portage 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.
140 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.
11 violent and 129 property, as reported to the FBI by Portage’s police.
Three people died in crashes on Portage’s roads in 2019–2023
Portage had 3 fatal crashes in five years, in which three people died; 1 was a pedestrian.
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 Portage’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Portage’s own rate (5.9) 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.
Portage and its neighbors
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Pacific, Lewiston and Caledonia have no FBI figures of their own for 2023–2025.
Wisconsin towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portage | C+ | 1.3 | 16.5 |
| Elkhorn | A− | 0.9 | 5.7 |
| Sturgeon Bay | B+ | 1.1 | 6.6 |
| Shawano | B− | 1.8 | 13.1 |
| Tomah | C | 3.5 | 17.2 |
| Sparta | C− | 3.5 | 24.6 |
The five graded Wisconsin towns closest to Portage’s population (9,956), 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 Portage. 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 Portage’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (9,830 in 2025); our figure for Portage is 9,956 (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 Portage
Is Portage, WI safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Portage reports more crime per resident than 57% of U.S. towns, a C+ Safety Grade and #131 of 175 in Wisconsin. Its police reported 1.3 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 Portage?
1.3 violent and 16.5 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 Portage?
Portage’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Portage”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
Neighbors looking out for each other in Portage.
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.