Onalaska vs West Salem

A side-by-side comparison of Onalaska and West Salem: population, income, housing, and more.

Onalaska and West Salem are places in Wisconsin. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Onalaska has the higher population (18,909 vs 5,268 in West Salem). West Salem has the higher median household income ($90,991 vs $84,898 in Onalaska). Onalaska has the higher median home value ($279,100 vs $269,300 in West Salem).

Population, income & housing

	Onalaska	West Salem
Population	18,909	5,268
Median age	40.3 yrs	40.5 yrs
Median household income	$84,898	$90,991
Median home value	$279,100	$269,300
Median gross rent	$1,096	$1,142
Housing units	8,676	2,101
Homeownership rate	63.0%	78.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	41.4%	44.1%
Unemployment rate	3.3%	3.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Onalaska	West Salem
Population	18,662 → 18,909 (+1.3%)	5,005 → 5,268 (+5.3%)
Median household income	$61,429 → $84,898 (+38.2%)	$57,543 → $90,991 (+58.1%)
Median home value	$196,600 → $279,100 (+42.0%)	$183,400 → $269,300 (+46.8%)
Median gross rent	$890 → $1,096 (+23.1%)	$869 → $1,142 (+31.4%)

Onalaska

Population

18,66218,909

Median household income

$61,429$84,898

Median home value

$196,600$279,100

Median gross rent

$890$1,096

West Salem

Population

5,0055,268

Median household income

$57,543$90,991

Median home value

$183,400$269,300

Median gross rent

$869$1,142

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Onalaska	West Salem
Under 5	5.4%	4.1%
5 to 17	15.0%	23.6%
18 to 24	9.4%	5.6%
25 to 34	13.3%	9.8%
35 to 44	13.4%	12.6%
45 to 54	10.4%	11.2%
55 to 64	13.7%	14.4%
65 to 74	9.5%	9.9%
75 and over	9.8%	8.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Onalaska	West Salem
White (non-Hispanic)	84.9%	86.4%
Black or African American	2.7%	0.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.5%	0.0%
Asian	5.0%	6.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.0%
Some other race	0.3%	0.0%
Two or more races	3.8%	5.4%
Hispanic or Latino	2.7%	1.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Onalaska	West Salem
No high school diploma	1.4%	3.2%
High school graduate	19.6%	18.6%
Some college or associate's	37.6%	34.2%
Bachelor's degree	25.1%	30.2%
Graduate or professional degree	16.3%	13.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Onalaska	West Salem
Drove alone	83.1%	81.6%
Carpooled	7.2%	4.6%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.9%	0.6%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.0%
Worked from home	8.1%	13.2%
Other means	0.5%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Onalaska	West Salem
1-unit, detached	55.8%	62.4%
1-unit, attached	10.1%	9.7%
2 to 4 units	10.6%	7.0%
5 to 19 units	9.2%	5.0%
20 or more units	9.7%	6.0%
Mobile home & other	4.7%	9.9%

Poverty & households

	Onalaska	West Salem
Poverty rate	5.9%	8.9%
Average household size	2.21	2.58
Mean commute (minutes)	18	20
Median year structure built	1991	1990