Best PlacesRipon, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Ripon, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Ripon ranks 8,260th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Ripon
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
Ripon's strengths and weaknesses
Where Ripon ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 96% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 96% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 93% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 90% of towns
- Short commute19.8 minutes each way, better than 88% of towns
Where Ripon ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 10% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,054 a month, better than only 22% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 29% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 30% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 33% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Ripon
A household needs to earn about $56,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Ripon home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $65,869, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Ripon's effective rate of 1.51%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Ripon
Ripon runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Ripon.
Who works in Ripon, and how
Work in Ripon centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Ripon
Ripon has more restaurants and bars per resident than 76% of towns and more parkland per resident than 92% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Ripon and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Ripon, month by month
Ripon sees roughly 113 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 28, with lows near 15. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 28° | 21° | 15° |
| April | 55° | 45° | 36° |
| July | 83° | 73° | 63° |
| October | 60° | 51° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Ripon
The nearest airport, Appleton International, is about 33 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 78 miles away.
The best schools in and around Ripon
Schools across Ripon average a B−, better than 61% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Quest Charter SchoolA · 65% proficient
- Rosendale IntermediateA− · 59% proficient
- Murray Park ElementaryB+ · 52% proficient
Top middle schools
- Rosendale-brandon MiddleB+ · 52% proficient
- Omro MiddleB · 46% proficient
- Ripon MiddleB− · 41% proficient
Top high schools
- Ripon HighC+ · 38% proficient
- Green Lake HighC+ · 35% proficient
- Markesan HighC · 33% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Ripon school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Ripon measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Ripon against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Ripon
Is Ripon a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Ripon ranks 8,260th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, walkability, and few empty homes, and lowest on property taxes and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Ripon expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $196,289. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $65,869 median income, cost of living beats 39% of towns.
Is Ripon safe?
Yes, Ripon is safer than 90% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $191 per resident a year.
Compare Ripon with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Ripon. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Ripon represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Ripon detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Ripon: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Ripon: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Ripon: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Ripon: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Ripon detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.