Sawyer County vs Washburn County

A side-by-side comparison of Sawyer County and Washburn County: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Sawyer County has the higher population (18,243 vs 16,749 in Washburn County). Washburn County has the higher median household income ($61,270 vs $59,055 in Sawyer County). Sawyer County has the higher median home value ($223,300 vs $207,900 in Washburn County).

Population, income & housing

	Sawyer County	Washburn County
Population	18,243	16,749
Median age	52.2 yrs	52.4 yrs
Median household income	$59,055	$61,270
Median home value	$223,300	$207,900
Median gross rent	$683	$815
Housing units	16,114	12,823
Homeownership rate	77.4%	80.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	27.2%	23.6%
Unemployment rate	5.5%	3.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Sawyer County	Washburn County
Population	16,399 → 18,243 (+11.2%)	15,688 → 16,749 (+6.8%)
Median household income	$47,714 → $59,055 (+23.8%)	$50,280 → $61,270 (+21.9%)
Median home value	$168,400 → $223,300 (+32.6%)	$157,400 → $207,900 (+32.1%)
Median gross rent	$682 → $683 (+0.1%)	$709 → $815 (+15.0%)

Sawyer County

Population

16,39918,243

Median household income

$47,714$59,055

Median home value

$168,400$223,300

Median gross rent

$682$683

Washburn County

Population

15,68816,749

Median household income

$50,280$61,270

Median home value

$157,400$207,900

Median gross rent

$709$815

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Sawyer County	Washburn County
Under 5	4.4%	3.8%
5 to 17	13.8%	14.5%
18 to 24	5.9%	5.8%
25 to 34	9.1%	8.0%
35 to 44	9.2%	10.1%
45 to 54	11.4%	11.6%
55 to 64	18.5%	18.6%
65 to 74	17.5%	17.2%
75 and over	10.3%	10.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Sawyer County	Washburn County
White (non-Hispanic)	77.1%	92.8%
Black or African American	0.6%	0.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	14.2%	1.0%
Asian	0.6%	0.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.4%	0.2%
Two or more races	4.9%	3.2%
Hispanic or Latino	2.4%	2.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Sawyer County	Washburn County
No high school diploma	7.1%	6.3%
High school graduate	32.5%	35.7%
Some college or associate's	33.1%	34.5%
Bachelor's degree	17.5%	16.9%
Graduate or professional degree	9.7%	6.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Sawyer County	Washburn County
Drove alone	70.4%	76.3%
Carpooled	12.9%	9.0%
Public transit	1.4%	0.3%
Walked	2.0%	1.4%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.3%
Worked from home	11.2%	11.8%
Other means	2.0%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Sawyer County	Washburn County
1-unit, detached	87.0%	87.4%
1-unit, attached	1.8%	1.5%
2 to 4 units	3.2%	2.6%
5 to 19 units	2.0%	1.4%
20 or more units	0.9%	0.7%
Mobile home & other	5.0%	6.4%

Poverty & households

	Sawyer County	Washburn County
Poverty rate	15.0%	11.7%
Average household size	2.09	2.19
Mean commute (minutes)	21	23
Median year structure built	1985	1982