Sheboygan County, Wisconsin

Sheboygan County is a county in Wisconsin, United States, on Lake Michigan’s western shore about
50 miles north of Milwaukee. It had a population of 118,034 at the 2020 census, an estimated
118,331 by 2025, and covers 1,271 square miles (3,290 km2) centred near 43°43′N 87°40′W.

Sheboygan is the county seat and its only city with a population above 10,000; its postal code is 53081. The county holds 3 cities, 10 incorporated villages and dozens of smaller communities across 15 towns, and it runs on Central Time. Its FIPS code is 55117.

Towns & Villages in Sheboygan County

Sheboygan County has 36 named places on record: 3 cities, 10 incorporated villages, 4 census
designated places and 19 unincorporated communities with no local government of their own. In
Wisconsin, cities and villages are independent of the towns (civil townships) around them rather
than subdivisions of them, so the Township column below names the surrounding town only where a
place is documented as sitting inside one. CDP stands for census designated place; Unincorp.
covers crossroads and rural communities with no formal boundary.

Two names on the old list were errors, corrected here: “Mosel” is one of the county’s 15
towns, not an unincorporated community, so it is covered in the Townships table below rather than
listed twice; and the old duplicate entry “Haven” appearing twice has been reduced to one row.
Greenbush is both a town and, separately, a small CDP of the same name inside a different part of
the county — the CDP is the 159-person place in this table, distinct from the 1,903-person
Town of Greenbush that surrounds the Wade House historic site.

Townships

Wisconsin’s 15 towns in Sheboygan County are general-purpose local governments in their own
right, not subdivisions of the cities and villages above — several, like Plymouth and
Sheboygan, share a name with a city that sits inside or beside them but is governed separately.

ZIP Codes

• 53081 — Sheboygan (standard delivery)
• 53082 — Sheboygan (PO box only)
• 53083 — Sheboygan and Howards Grove
• 53073 — Plymouth
• 53085 — Sheboygan Falls
• 53070 — Oostburg
• 53044 — Kohler
• 53013 — Cedar Grove
• 53075 — Random Lake
• 53020 — Elkhart Lake
• 53011 — Cascade
• 53001 — Adell
• 53023 — Glenbeulah
• 53093 — Waldo
• 53026 — Hingham (PO box only, also serves the Greenbush CDP)
• 53031 — Hingham post office box range

Gibbsville, Batavia, Johnsonville, New Paris and most of the county’s small unincorporated
crossroads have no ZIP code of their own; mail there is delivered under the nearest post office
town’s code instead.

Geography

Sheboygan County sits on Wisconsin’s eastern lakeshore, where the flat Lake Michigan plain
rises gently into rolling kettle-moraine terrain toward the west. The county’s total area is
1,271 square miles, but only 511 square miles are land; the remaining 760 square miles, about 60
percent of the total, is open water in Lake Michigan. The Sheboygan River, which gives the county
its name, runs east across the county through Sheboygan Falls and empties into Lake Michigan at
the city of Sheboygan. The Mullet River, a Sheboygan River tributary, flows through Plymouth and
Glenbeulah. Elkhart Lake, an inland kettle lake in the northwestern part of the county, gives its
name to the village on its shore.

Manitowoc County lies to the north, Ozaukee County to the south, Fond du Lac County to the west
and Washington County to the southwest, with Calumet County meeting the county’s northwestern
corner. Manitowoc County, Ozaukee County, Fond du Lac County, Washington County and Calumet County all border Sheboygan
County.

Demographics

Sheboygan County had a population of 118,034 at the 2020 census, and the latest estimate puts
the county near 118,331 residents. Sheboygan and Plymouth are the two largest communities, with
Sheboygan alone holding more than 40 percent of the county’s population. Median household
income runs $73,094, below Wisconsin’s statewide figure of $74,631. Population density works
out to roughly 231 people per square mile of land, concentrated heavily along the Lake Michigan
shoreline and in the Sheboygan-Plymouth corridor, with the rural western towns much more sparsely
settled.

Economy & Local Life

Manufacturing employs the most workers in the county, about 18,614 people, followed by health
care and social assistance at 7,269 and retail trade at 5,719. Kohler Co., a plumbing-fixture and
hospitality company founded by John Michael Kohler in 1873, is headquartered in the village of
Kohler and remains the county’s single largest private employer; it also runs the American
Club resort and the Whistling Straits and Blackwolf Run golf courses. Plymouth markets itself as
the “Cheese Capital of the World” and hosts cheese processors including Sargento,
Sartori, Masters Gallery and Great Lakes Cheese. Bemis Manufacturing, a toilet-seat maker, and
Johnsonville Sausage, headquartered near the unincorporated community of Johnsonville, are both
major employers based in the town of Sheboygan Falls. Sheboygan itself calls itself the
“Bratwurst Capital of the World,” and the Sheboygan Jaycees’ Brat Days each
August draws crowds for the Johnsonville World Bratwurst Eating Championship. Road America, a
4-mile road-racing circuit south of Elkhart Lake, hosts more than 400 events a year and is the
county’s biggest annual visitor draw.

History

Wisconsin Territory established Sheboygan County in 1836 and organized its government in 1846,
ten years before Sheboygan itself was incorporated as a city in 1853. The county takes its name
from the Sheboygan River; local tradition holds the Ojibwe or Menominee name referred to a
underground passage or pipe-like river channel near the mouth. German immigrants arrived in large
numbers after the failed 1848 revolutions in Europe, and their descendants still shape the
county’s food and civic culture, from Sheboygan’s bratwurst trade to the historic
Sylvanus Wade House stagecoach inn in Greenbush, built in 1851 and now a state historic site. Kohler
began in 1900 as a planned company town called Riverside, built by the Kohler Company around its
foundry, and was incorporated as its own village in 1912.

Getting There

Interstate 43 crosses the county north to south, connecting Sheboygan to Milwaukee and Green
Bay. US Highway 141 and State Highways 23, 28, 32, 42, 57, 67 and 144 also run through the
county.

• Milwaukee — about 50 miles south
• Green Bay — about 60 miles north
• Fond du Lac — about 30 miles west
• Manitowoc — about 30 miles north

Sheboygan County Memorial Airport, west of the city of Sheboygan, handles general aviation.
Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport, about 55 miles south, is the nearest major commercial
airport. Amtrak has no station in the county; the closest stops are in Milwaukee.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Sheboygan County located?
It sits on Wisconsin’s Lake Michigan shoreline, about 50 miles north of Milwaukee, bordered
by Manitowoc, Ozaukee, Fond du Lac, Washington and Calumet counties.

What is the population of Sheboygan County?
118,034 at the 2020 census, with a 2025 estimate near 118,331.

How big is Sheboygan County?
1,271 square miles (3,290 km2) in total, but only 511 square miles are land — about 60
percent of the county is open water in Lake Michigan.

What is the county seat of Sheboygan County?
Sheboygan is the county seat and largest city, incorporated in 1853.

How many towns and villages are in Sheboygan County?
Three cities — Sheboygan, Plymouth and Sheboygan Falls — ten incorporated villages,
four census-designated places and 15 towns, plus a scattering of smaller unincorporated
communities.

What ZIP codes does Sheboygan County use?
53081, 53082 and 53083 for Sheboygan; 53073 for Plymouth; 53085 for Sheboygan Falls; and separate
codes for Oostburg, Kohler, Cedar Grove, Random Lake, Elkhart Lake, Cascade, Adell, Glenbeulah and
Waldo.

What is Sheboygan County known for?
Bratwurst and cheese — Sheboygan calls itself the Bratwurst Capital of the World and Plymouth
the Cheese Capital of the World — plus the Kohler Company’s plumbing and golf-resort
business and the Road America race track near Elkhart Lake.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in Wisconsin.