Wisconsin · Milwaukee County
Milwaukee Authority
Also known as: Milwaukee Metro Authority
Milwaukee is a middle-income mid-sized city of 566,973 with home prices 1.4× below the Wisconsin median.
Milwaukee is one of those cities that tends to be described in terms of what it used to be — a manufacturing hub, a beer capital, a Great Lakes port — when the more interesting story is what it actually is right now: a mid-sized American city of 566,973 people with a median age of 32.4, which is to say, a city that skews considerably younger than the national average and is, by the numbers, still figuring out what it wants to be when it grows up. Every figure on this page is drawn from federal public data and is traceable to its source.
Population and Demographics
According to Census ACS 5-Year 2024 estimates, Milwaukee's total population stands at 566,973. The city's age distribution reflects its "young professional" character: 162,847 residents fall in the 18-to-34 range, while 143,741 are under 18, meaning that roughly a quarter of the population, 25.4 percent, are children. The median age of 32.4 years places Milwaukee well below the national median.
The city's racial and ethnic composition, per Census ACS 5-Year 2023 data, includes 208,130 white residents, 220,165 Black residents, 27,525 Asian residents, and 117,786 Hispanic or Latino residents. There are 231,084 total households, of which 118,965 are family households. Milwaukee is, in short, one of the more racially diverse mid-sized cities in the Midwest, a fact that tends to get underreported in coverage that focuses primarily on its segregation challenges rather than its demographic breadth.
Housing and Affordability
Derived from Census income, housing, and poverty data, Milwaukee's home-price-to-income ratio sits at 3.4, which places it in the "moderate" affordability range — a figure that will surprise people accustomed to thinking of Midwestern cities as uniformly cheap. Renters, who make up a substantial share of the city's households, spend approximately 22.9 percent of income on rent, a figure that qualifies as "affordable" by standard housing-cost benchmarks. Whether that figure feels affordable to the people actually paying it is, of course, a separate question that federal ratios are not designed to answer.
Air Quality
The EPA's AQI Annual Summary for 2024 recorded 366 days of air quality monitoring in Milwaukee. Of those, 251 were classified as "good" days and 109 as "moderate." Six days fell into the "unhealthy for sensitive groups" category. There were no days classified as unhealthy for the general population, very unhealthy, or hazardous. The maximum AQI recorded was 147. By the standards of large American cities, this is a reasonably clean air profile, though the 109 moderate days are worth noting for residents with respiratory sensitivities.
Climate
The nearest reliable weather station to central Milwaukee, the Mount Mary College station located approximately 4.0 miles away, records an average annual temperature of 44.3 degrees Fahrenheit and annual precipitation of 32.1 inches, according to NOAA ACIS data. These figures reflect the city's position on the western shore of Lake Michigan, where the lake moderates temperature extremes somewhat but does not prevent the winters that Milwaukee is, fairly, known for.
Broadband Access
According to FCC Broadband Data Collection figures as of June 2025, Milwaukee achieves 100 percent coverage at the 25/3 Mbps threshold, 100 percent at 100/20 Mbps, and 100 percent at 250/25 Mbps across its 290,443 housing units. Coverage at the 1,000/100 Mbps tier reaches approximately 50.9 percent of units. Full gigabit availability, in other words, has not yet reached half the city's housing stock, which is a useful reminder that "broadband access" and "high-speed broadband access" are not the same thing.
Education
Milwaukee is home to 15 colleges and universities, per NCES IPEDS 2022 data. Among the most prominent is the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, which according to the College Scorecard enrolls 16,758 students, charges in-state tuition of $10,398 and out-of-state tuition of $22,398, and reports an admission rate of 90.68 percent. The average SAT score for enrolled students is 1,090, and the completion rate is approximately 50 percent — a figure that reflects both the university's open-access mission and the economic pressures facing many of its students.
Land Use and Subdivision Regulations
Milwaukee's municipal code contains detailed provisions governing land division and development. Per the municode corpus, Section 44-13 of the city's regulations requires that any person, firm, or corporation developing or dividing land within the city's jurisdictional limits must comply with all requirements of the relevant chapter, the provisions of Wisconsin Statutes chapters 62 and 236, rules of the Wisconsin Division of Environmental Protection regarding water quality and septic systems, applicable rules of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation where land abuts a state trunk highway, the city's comprehensive plan, and all applicable zoning ordinances and official maps. The regulation is, on close inspection, a layered stack of cross-references — state statute, state agency rule, local ordinance — that reflects how Wisconsin distributes land-use authority across multiple levels of government simultaneously.
Zoning administration follows a similarly consolidated approach. Sections 16-198 and 82-930 of the municipal code, as reflected in the municode corpus, provide that where a zoning administrator, planning agency, or board of appeals has already been appointed to administer a zoning ordinance under Wisconsin Statutes sections 59.69, 59.692, or 62.23(7), those same officials also administer the relevant article or ordinance. This is a practical efficiency measure — the same human beings, in other words, are responsible for multiple overlapping regulatory frameworks rather than separate offices being stood up for each one.
Civic and Community Infrastructure
Milwaukee supports a notable density of civic organizations. According to IRS Exempt Organizations data, the city has 497 churches and 409 licensed childcare centers. There are 27 civic service organizations, including a Habitat for Humanity chapter located at 420 S. 1st Street. Eight animal shelter organizations operate in the area, including the Wisconsin Humane Society and Friends of Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission. Twenty-three arts organizations are registered, among them the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra.
The city has 60 recorded nearby attractions, ranging from the Hmong Museum & Gift Shop, located 0.5 miles from the city center, to Washington Park Pool, 0.6 miles out. The chamber of commerce on record through the IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File is the New Berlin Chamber of Commerce.
Banking
FDIC branch data shows multiple banking institutions operating in Milwaukee, including The Huntington National Bank's Holt Plaza Branch at 110 W. Holt Ave. and Associated Bank, National Association, among others. The presence of national and regional banks alongside community institutions reflects the city's role as the primary financial services hub for southeastern Wisconsin.
Further Reading
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates — https://data.census.gov
- National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data — https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/
- FEMA, Disaster Declarations — https://www.fema.gov/disaster/declarations