Is Saratoga a good place to live?
Saratoga gives you more for your money than most places: a typical home costs about $176K, 2.6 years of the Wisconsin Rapids area’s $68K median household income. It grades C overall, 330th of 357 graded towns in Wisconsin. The low prices come with trade-offs. Its schools rank behind 78% of the state's. On walkability, just 37 of Wisconsin’s 879 towns do worse. Its National Register listings include Wakeley's Tavern and Wakely Road Bridge. On hazard risk, just 57 of Wisconsin’s 879 towns do worse.
What makes Saratoga stand out
Where Saratoga beats most towns.
95% of working residents leave Saratoga for work
Where Saratoga’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
How Saratoga grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Wisconsin), ordered by how far Saratoga is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Moving to Saratoga: who provides what
Who provides power, water and the rest in Saratoga, 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.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in Saratoga.
Saratoga sends most of its workers to Wisconsin Rapids and beyond, but it carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Wisconsin (mostly inland flooding).
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good Shepherd Evangelical Lutheran School PrivateLargest elementary schoolGrades PK–8 | Grades PK–8 | 26 | – |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within WI on state tests and graduation
Saratoga sends most of its workers out of town
Saratoga has 445 jobs for its 2,156 working residents: even if every job went to a resident, most would still commute out. The average commute takes 31.1 minutes, against 22.2 across Wisconsin.
Commuting out is the norm in Saratoga: 5% of working residents work locally. Its average trip to work stands at 31 minutes, above both the Wisconsin town median (22 minutes) and the median of U.S. towns (25 minutes). Jobs in Saratoga grew by 68 from 2013 to 2023, reaching 445. The top destinations are Wisconsin Rapids (28%), Stevens Point (6%) and Plover (4%).
| Saratoga | Wisconsin towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 31 minutes | 22 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 5.9% | 6.4% | 9.6% |
| Median household income | $74,000 | $88,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 5.3% | 8.4% | 8% |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
The climate in Saratoga brings snowy winters and pleasant summers
Saratoga’s typical July afternoon high stands at 82°F, where Wisconsin’s towns sit at 82°F and U.S. towns at 85°F.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
High risk in Saratoga, with inland flooding at the top
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 94% of Wisconsin towns, with expected losses of about $555 per resident a year; that rating is what its C for hazard risk is built on.
4 flood insurance claims have been paid in Saratoga since 2010. Its FEMA hazard score comes in at 64 of 100. Of the losses FEMA expects here, 54% come from inland flooding and 28% from cold waves. One declared disaster, in 2019, has brought federal aid to Saratoga households.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Saratoga has set aside 1.6% of its land for conservation
In Saratoga, the concentration of trails is 0.1 miles per square mile. Trails run 5.0 miles in 1 park or preserve. Parks and preserves here: one, of 4 acres.
| Saratoga | Wisconsin towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.1 miles per square mile | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 1.6% | 3.8% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Riverside Park | — | 4 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Saratoga is less healthy than 54% of U.S. towns
In Saratoga, 31% of adults sleep under 7 hours, and 13% have diabetes. Of 32 CDC measures, Saratoga beats the Wisconsin average on 3 and trails it on 7. For adults here, the share who feel lonely is 28%.
| Saratoga | Wisconsin towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 28% | 30% | 33% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 31% | 32% | 36% |
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 11% | 12% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 37% | 33% | 35% |
| What stands out | Saratoga | WI |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 8.5% | 9.7% |
| More adults treating high blood pressure | 80.6% | 77.8% |
| More adults with heart disease | 8.2% | 6.6% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Everything we know about Saratoga
Colleges nearby
1 within 15 miles of the center of Saratoga
About 2 of every 100 Saratoga residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Wisconsin.
About Saratoga
Town in Wisconsin, United States
Saratoga is a town in Wood County, Wisconsin, United States - south of Wisconsin Rapids and east of Nekoosa. As of the 2020 census, the population of the town is 5,060 people.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 51 sq mi
- Elevation
- 1,007 ft
Saratoga’s neighbors
7 towns share a border with Saratoga.
| Town | WI rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saratoga | #330 | C | B+ | — | C− | B− |
| Nekoosa | — | — | B+ | — | D− | C− |
| Port Edwards | — | — | A− | — | D− | C |
| Port Edwards | — | — | B+ | — | C− | C− |
| Rome | #347 | D | D | A− | D− | C+ |
| Grant | — | — | A− | — | C | B− |
| Grand Rapids | #175 | B+ | B+ | A | C+ | B− |
| Armenia | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Nekoosa, Port Edwards, Port Edwards and Grant have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Saratoga, Nekoosa, Port Edwards, Port Edwards and Grant report no FBI crime data of their own. Armenia isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Saratoga with a neighbor →
Questions about Saratoga
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Saratoga, WI a good place to live?
Saratoga grades C overall, better than 26% of U.S. towns and #330 of 357 in Wisconsin. It grades B− for health and C− for schools. Walkability is its weak spot, with a D.
Is Saratoga, WI expensive?
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+.