The population was 5,992 at the 2020 census, and Slinger is on the outer edge of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Area The village was originally known as Schleisingerville, after Baruch Schleisinger Weil, a merchant and politician who developed the community as a railroad stop in the 1840s and 1850s.

[6][7][8] In the early 19th century, the Slinger area was home to Potawatomi Native Americans, who surrendered the land the United States Federal Government in 1833 through the 1833 Treaty of Chicago, which (after being ratified in 1835) required them to leave Wisconsin by 1838.

[9][10] While many Potawatomis moved west of the Mississippi River to Kansas, some chose to remain, and were referred to as "strolling Potawatomi" in contemporary documents because many of them were migrants who subsisted by squatting on their ancestral lands, which were now owned by white settlers.

[11] One band of strolling Potawatomi travelled through Dodge, Jefferson, and Washington counties, and was led by Chief Kewaskum, who had a camp on Pike Lake, west of Slinger.

[11] Baruch Schleisinger Weil, a Jewish-American immigrant from Strasbourg, Alsace, laid the village's foundation when he bought 2,000 acres of land in Washington County on November 1, 1845.

He soon built a general store to serve local farmers, loggers and Native Americans, and later opened a distillery.

Other merchants and manufacturers, including blacksmiths, shoemakers, wagon makers and tanners, began settling in the area, which was called "Schleisingerville" in Weil's honor.

In 1850, Weil opened a post office and in 1855 he worked to have the La Crosse and Milwaukee Railroad pass through the community.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the village had a Turnverein[15] and a German-language weekly newspaper called Der Botschafter (English: The Messenger).

[17] Following World War II, the village saw the growth of heavy industry, including the Slinger Foundry Company, which manufactures parts for Briggs & Stratton and Harley-Davidson.

Between 1970 and 2000, the village experienced rapid population growth and real estate development, and Washington County became increasingly suburbanized.