Destination profile

Waukesha County, Wisconsin

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Cost of living and taxes

Effective property tax rate

1.01%

Wisconsin county average: 1.26%

Median property tax bill

$4,397

On a median home of $435,300

This is the rate actually paid on the median home in Waukesha County — the median bill divided by the median value. It is not the headline millage, and it does not include any senior or homestead exemption you may qualify for.

Income tax, sales tax, insurance and everyday prices for WI are handled in the moving-cost calculator, which lets you put your own income and home value in.

Source: county median property tax and median home value, tax year 2026, loaded 2026.

Health care

Nearest emergency room

WAUKESHA MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

1.7 miles

4 of 5 CMS stars

Straight-line distance from the county’s population centre. Road travel is longer.

Nearest major teaching hospital

FROEDTERT MEMORIAL LUTHERAN HOSPITAL

10 miles

Major medical-school affiliation on the Medicare Provider of Services file — where complex care and specialist referrals usually end up.

Primary-care doctors per 100,000 people

142.2

Wisconsin county median: 55.5 per 100,000

Specialists: 305.5 per 100,000

Hospital beds: 2.21 per 1,000

No primary-care shortage designation

HRSA does not designate this county a Health Professional Shortage Area for primary care.

Sources: HRSA Area Health Resources File 2024–25 (physicians, beds, shortage areas); CMS Hospital General Information and Provider of Services file, 2026 release.

Physicians are counted where they practise, not where patients live, so a county next to a medical hub can look thinner than it is — which is why we lead with distance to the nearest hospital.

Climate

Average January low

12°F

Average July high

82°F

Climate burden: demanding

7,702 heating and cooling degree days a year.

Source: NOAA nClimDiv county climate normals, 1991–2020 (2020 release).

Arts and culture

Places you can name in Waukesha County

  • Waukesha Civic TheatrePerforming arts
  • Blackstone CottageMuseum
  • Civil War Museum of DelafieldMuseum
  • Delafield History CenterMuseum
  • Depot Beer GardenMuseum
  • E B Shurts Environmental EdMuseum

Museums and performing-arts venues in the county

55

Wisconsin county median: 9

In and around, within about an hour

325

Includes venues in neighbouring counties within 60 miles of this county’s population centre — not just the county itself.

Places on the National Register of Historic Places

125

Wisconsin county median: 14.5

Active arts and museum nonprofits

24

Combined annual revenue: $3.6 million

Businesses on the Census County Business Patterns file

Theatre companies
3
Event and music promoters
5
Museums
Fewer than 3 (withheld)
Historic sites
Fewer than 3 (withheld)

The Census withholds any count below three to protect individual businesses, so “fewer than 3” means exactly that — it does not mean none.

Sources: Overture Maps Foundation places (venue names and locations, CDLA-Permissive-2.0); National Park Service National Register of Historic Places; National Center for Charitable Statistics Business Master File at the Urban Institute (ODC-BY 1.0); Census County Business Patterns 2023.

These are counts of what exists, not a rating of how good it is. A county with one much-loved theatre can be a better fit than one with a dozen you would never visit.

Family proximity

Tell us roughly where your family lives on the explore form and this panel will show the straight-line distance too.

Nearest commercial airport

General Mitchell International Airport (MKE) is 21 miles away with 28 nonstop destinations.

Sources: OurAirports (airport names and locations, public domain); Bureau of Transportation Statistics On-Time Performance, 2026 (nonstop destinations flown by reporting carriers in the most recent month). Distances are great-circle from the county centre point.

Every figure above is named by source and vintage. See our data & methodology for the agency, licence and limits behind each dimension.