Portage County vs Sauk County

A side-by-side comparison of Portage County and Sauk County: population, income, housing, and more.

Portage County and Sauk County are counties in Wisconsin. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Portage County has the higher population (70,375 vs 65,759 in Sauk County). Sauk County has the higher median household income ($77,648 vs $73,284 in Portage County). Sauk County has the higher median home value ($242,400 vs $230,400 in Portage County).

Population, income & housing

	Portage County	Sauk County
Population	70,375	65,759
Median age	38.1 yrs	41.3 yrs
Median household income	$73,284	$77,648
Median home value	$230,400	$242,400
Median gross rent	$903	$970
Housing units	31,496	31,091
Homeownership rate	69.3%	73.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	33.7%	26.5%
Unemployment rate	3.2%	2.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Portage County	Sauk County
Population	70,632 → 70,375 (-0.4%)	63,922 → 65,759 (+2.9%)
Median household income	$58,853 → $73,284 (+24.5%)	$59,943 → $77,648 (+29.5%)
Median home value	$168,100 → $230,400 (+37.1%)	$182,200 → $242,400 (+33.0%)
Median gross rent	$776 → $903 (+16.4%)	$801 → $970 (+21.1%)

Portage County

Population

70,63270,375

Median household income

$58,853$73,284

Median home value

$168,100$230,400

Median gross rent

$776$903

Sauk County

Population

63,92265,759

Median household income

$59,943$77,648

Median home value

$182,200$242,400

Median gross rent

$801$970

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Portage County	Sauk County
Under 5	4.6%	5.6%
5 to 17	14.4%	16.9%
18 to 24	15.5%	7.1%
25 to 34	11.9%	11.5%
35 to 44	11.4%	13.1%
45 to 54	11.0%	12.0%
55 to 64	13.3%	14.5%
65 to 74	10.9%	11.6%
75 and over	6.9%	7.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Portage County	Sauk County
White (non-Hispanic)	89.5%	87.0%
Black or African American	0.8%	0.9%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.7%
Asian	2.8%	0.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.2%	0.8%
Two or more races	2.6%	3.7%
Hispanic or Latino	3.9%	6.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Portage County	Sauk County
No high school diploma	5.2%	6.6%
High school graduate	31.1%	33.1%
Some college or associate's	30.0%	33.7%
Bachelor's degree	23.6%	18.6%
Graduate or professional degree	10.1%	7.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Portage County	Sauk County
Drove alone	74.1%	78.4%
Carpooled	8.3%	8.7%
Public transit	0.4%	0.1%
Walked	4.0%	2.5%
Bicycle	0.9%	0.4%
Worked from home	11.5%	8.4%
Other means	0.8%	1.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Portage County	Sauk County
1-unit, detached	68.7%	69.2%
1-unit, attached	3.4%	3.3%
2 to 4 units	9.4%	8.0%
5 to 19 units	10.7%	8.8%
20 or more units	3.6%	4.1%
Mobile home & other	4.1%	6.7%

Poverty & households

	Portage County	Sauk County
Poverty rate	10.2%	8.8%
Average household size	2.28	2.37
Mean commute (minutes)	19	23
Median year structure built	1979	1982