Best PlacesSheboygan, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Sheboygan metro, 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.
Photo by AsherHeimermann, CC BY-SA 4.0, via wiki
Sheboygan ranks 84th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on cheap car insurance and short commutes. The weaker spots are property taxes, air quality, and childcare costs.
The best neighborhoods in the Sheboygan metro
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.
The best areas in Sheboygan
The towns and districts of the Sheboygan metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Sheboygan Falls & Kohler
Crime runs lower, more residents vote, and biking is better.
Howards Grove
Fewer homes sit empty, though streets are more car-dependent.
Oostburg & Cedar Grove
Incomes run higher and schools score higher.
Elkhart Lake
It is quieter, though fewer households have young kids.
Random Lake & Cascade
Local pay stretches further and tree cover is thicker.
Plymouth
Advertised internet is faster and prices have run up less.
Downtown Sheboygan
Homes cost less, though fewer adults hold degrees.
Scores across Sheboygan run from about the 34th to the 98th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Sheboygan's strengths and weaknesses
Sheboygan ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Cheap car insurance is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Short commutes and health care access follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Property taxes, air quality, and childcare costs hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Sheboygan ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Short commute18.2 minutes each way, better than 96% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than 94% of metro areas
- WalkabilityBetter than 87% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than 87% of metro areas
Where Sheboygan ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 24% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than only 26% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,055 a month, better than only 31% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than only 31% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than only 37% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Sheboygan
A household needs to earn about $66,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sheboygan home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $79,025, 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 Sheboygan's effective rate of 1.30%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Sheboygan
Sheboygan's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Sheboygan.
Who works in Sheboygan, and how
Work in Sheboygan centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Sheboygan
Sheboygan has more parkland per resident than 97% of metro areas and less late-night activity than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Sheboygan and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Sheboygan growing, and who is moving in?
Sheboygan has grown about 3% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Milwaukee, WI.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Sheboygan go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Sheboygan, month by month
Sheboygan sees roughly 112 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 30, with lows near 17. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 30° | 23° | 17° |
| April | 54° | 43° | 35° |
| July | 82° | 71° | 62° |
| October | 61° | 51° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Sheboygan
The nearest airport, Appleton International, is about 53 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 56 miles away.
The best schools in and around Sheboygan
Schools across Sheboygan average a C+, better than 41% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Kohler ElementaryA+ · 83% proficient
- Oostburg ElementaryA− · 60% proficient
- Lincoln-erdman ElementaryA− · 58% proficient
Top middle schools
- Oostburg MiddleA · 62% proficient
- Kohler MiddleA · 62% proficient
- Howards Grove MiddleA · 59% proficient
Top high schools
- Kohler HighB · 47% proficient
- Oostburg HighB− · 45% proficient
- Howards Grove HighC · 33% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Sheboygan school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Sheboygan 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 Sheboygan against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Sheboygan suits
Families
Schools land around the 41st percentile and crime safety beats 67%.
Retirees
The weather beats 68% of metro areas and health care access beats 94%.
Common questions about living in Sheboygan
Is Sheboygan a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sheboygan ranks 84th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, short commutes, and health care access, and lowest on property taxes and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Sheboygan expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $236,427. The overall cost of living runs about 15% below the national average. Set against a $79,025 median income, cost of living beats 65% of metro areas.
Is Sheboygan safe?
Yes, Sheboygan is safer than 67% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $310 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Sheboygan?
July highs average about 82 degrees, and January highs near 30 with lows near 17. That works out to about 112 pleasant days a year, more than 68% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Sheboygan?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Sheboygan Falls & Kohler, Howards Grove, and Oostburg & Cedar Grove. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Sheboygan good for families?
Schools beat 41% of metro areas, crime safety beats 67%, and childcare runs $1,055 a month.
Is Sheboygan good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 65% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 40% of metro areas. About 11% of workers already work from home.
Compare Sheboygan with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sheboygan. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sheboygan 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.
Sheboygan detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Sheboygan: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Sheboygan: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Sheboygan: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Sheboygan: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Sheboygan 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.