City safety & data profile
MadisonWI
Madison, WI is a 280K-resident city in Dane County with a median household income of $78,050.
Dane County, Wisconsin. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Madison, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Madison has a population larger than 98% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $372,900, and 5 hospitals serving the surrounding area.
Data updated 2026-09-04
- 280K
- Population (place)
- Top 2%
- By size
- $78,050
- Median income (place)
- $372,900
- Median home (place)
- 16.4%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Madison
Madison posts a median household income higher than 47% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 5 hospitals serve the Madison area.
- Bottom 48%
- by median income, US cities
- 5
- hospitals in & near Madison
Where Madison income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$78,050 Bottom 47% higher than 47% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles
Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year
Largest cities in WI
Population among 85 WI places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.
- Milwaukee
Milwaukee, WI
563,531 residents
- Madison
Madison, WI
280,305 residents
- Green Bay 105,207
Green Bay, WI
105,207 residents
- Kenosha 99,858
Kenosha, WI
99,858 residents
- Racine 77,742
Racine, WI
77,742 residents
- Appleton 74,139
Appleton, WI
74,139 residents
- Waukesha 71,970
Waukesha, WI
71,970 residents
- Eau Claire 67,778
Eau Claire, WI
67,778 residents
- Oshkosh 66,555
Oshkosh, WI
66,555 residents
- Janesville 64,123
Janesville, WI
64,123 residents
What this shows Milwaukee is the largest WI city on this list; Whitefish Bay leads median income.
Highest median incomes in WI
Median household income among the same 85-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.
- Whitefish Bay
Whitefish Bay, WI
$157,109 median
- Mequon
Mequon, WI
$144,051 median
- Richfield
Richfield, WI
$143,963 median
- Brookfield
Brookfield, WI
$129,548 median
- Waunakee
Waunakee, WI
$125,220 median
- Verona
Verona, WI
$119,606 median
- Sussex
Sussex, WI
$119,041 median
- Suamico
Suamico, WI
$118,337 median
- Muskego
Muskego, WI
$112,221 median
- Franklin
Franklin, WI
$106,894 median
What this shows Whitefish Bay posts the highest place-level median income in WI; Milwaukee is largest by headcount.
The quick read
Reading Madison, WI beyond the headline numbers
Madison sits inside Dane County, Wisconsin, at roughly 43.07°N, -89.40°W. Population 280,305, $78,050 median household income. Median home value $372,900, median rent $1,413. Poverty rate 16.4%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
5 hospitals in/around Madison, 4.8/5 avg rating, 4 with an ER.
Poverty in Madison, WI stands at 16.4%, above the midpoint of reporting cities. A median income can look comfortable while a share this size sits well beneath it, which is why the two figures belong together.
A median home in Madison runs about 4.8 times median household income, above the midpoint. Multiples in this range usually mean buyers are arriving from outside the local wage base.
20.5% of Madison workers report working from home, the highest quarter of reporting cities. Where that share runs this high, local income increasingly reflects employers located somewhere else.
Among the CDC measures on this page, binge drinking departs furthest from its peer median: 20.8% in Madison, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.
5.3% of Madison workers commute by public transit, a larger share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.
Madison's median age is 31.8 years, in the youngest quarter of reporting cities.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Madison from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.
10-Year Trends 2013–2024
County-level trend (Dane County): Madison's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.
Economics
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Median Rent | |
| Poverty Rate | 16.4% +32% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 2.6% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 59.9% |
| Work From Home | 20.5% |
| Public Transit | 5.3% |
Population
Health Profile 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
Hospitals 5 total
What alerts and safety updates affect Madison?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Madison right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet WI-MADISON-WI · Madison
Madison: 19 tagged alerts; lead category NWS weather alert.
- VOL-ACTIVE 19 on record
- WX-LED 100% weather
- DESK-MIX NOAA
- NEAR-PEER 16 · El Paso
Tagged alert mix: Madison
Published notices carrying this city slug or location tag
- Weather Alerts
Weather Alerts
19
What this shows 19 tagged notices on record for Madison.
Nearest tagged-volume peer: El Paso, TX (16 tagged · Δ3)
Counts reflect published articles tagged to Madison; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Wisconsin state hubs · Methodology
Cities with a similar tagged alert volume 4
Nearest published-notice counts on Areazine (19 tagged here), a feed-density peer set, not an ACS demographic match.
Read with this city profile
Frequently Asked Questions 6
What is the population of Madison, WI? ▼
What is the median household income in Madison? ▼
What is the median home value in Madison? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Madison? ▼
How many hospitals are in Madison? ▼
What is the median age in Madison? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Madison, both outside Wisconsin so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside WI (16.4% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside WI ($78,050 here).
Compare Madison with another city
Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.
Nearby Cities 8
Using Madison's profile
Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.
- Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Madison area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
- Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
- Compare Madison against Wisconsin peers on any ranking lens. Explore Wisconsin
Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city. County-level trends are labeled when shown.
Data Sources
All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Dane County) where that is the smallest published unit.
Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.