River Falls, WI population, income and ZIP codes

River Falls city is a mid-size town in Wisconsin, with 16,349 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #53 of 807 ranked by population — larger than 93% of them. The median age here is 27.9 years against 39.1 nationally, a distinctly younger profile, typical of places with students, military posts or a fast-growing family population. Places under 65,000 residents only appear in the five-year release, never the one-year file, so these values pool sixty months of responses and lag the current year by design.

Households in River Falls city earn a median of $78,078 a year, essentially level with the national figure of $78,538 and 6% above the $73,880 median for the 395 Wisconsin cities we cover. Median household income counts every pre-tax dollar arriving at an address — wages, self-employment, Social Security, pensions, interest and public assistance — for everyone living there, so multi-earner households pull the figure up even where individual pay is modest. Poverty reaches 17.3% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in River Falls city is valued at $299,800, 1.2% below the national figure and 41% above the $211,900 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,050 a month, 25.3% below the national figure, or roughly $12,600 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 16.1% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is cheap relative to what people here earn. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 3.8×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 58.7% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. Rent is reported gross — contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities — which is why it runs above the advertised price on a listing for the same unit.

A median age of 27.9 means a large student or early-career population; income medians in places like this understate household resources, since many residents are supported from outside the address.

No figure on this page is estimated by us; each one comes straight from the published ACS tables for this area. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.