Wisconsin's New 3rd Largest City

[atler8]

Originally Posted by Milwaukee City

Madison will definitely reach 300,000, I don't know Madison real well but just by looking at a map, they don't seem to be land locked by suburbs on the northwest or southwest side. Plus Madison's low density outside of downtown should provide more future development. In our lifetime you could actually see Madison pass Milwaukee. Now Milwaukee is going through a huge condo and apartment boom and they city is finally starting to tear down and build more houses again something they haven't done since the 80's. So Milwaukee's population should start going up again, not enough to tell by this 2020 census but 2030 you'll see it.

For most of our state's history Racine was always the 2nd largest city in the state but around 1945 Madison passed Racine. If you ever go to Racine you'll see a lot of bigger buildings and it will seem like a bigger city than it really is. Racine had a peak population of about 100,000 but now is dropping to 70,000. Madison was the 4th largest until about 1922 when it passed Kenosha but still lagged behind Racine but then in 1943 Madison boomed from 67,000 to 96,000 in just 10 years. Racine must of had a lot of war casualties during this time since their pop. was pretty much flat lined. I wonder what Madison did or the college did at that time to jump that many people while every other city in the state and US was dropping pop.

I apologize for spotting & responding to this so long after you posed the question here as to what Madison or the university did in the 1940's such that Madison boomed so much in population during that decade.

The answer is that in the 1950 census count university students (everywhere, not just in Madison) for the 1st time were counted as part of the population of the city in which they lived as students.
As such, in the 1950 census, Madison for the 1st time was able to include it's student population as part of it's total population.

Since then the Madison's population growth continued at a modest to rapid pace with the stark exception of the decade of the 1970's when Madison stood still.

[Milwaukee City]

Originally Posted by atler8

I apologize for spotting & responding to this so long after you posed the question here as to what Madison or the university did in the 1940's such that Madison boomed so much in population during that decade.

The answer is that in the 1950 census count university students (everywhere, not just in Madison) for the 1st time were counted as part of the population of the city in which they lived as students.
As such, in the 1950 census, Madison for the 1st time was able to include it's student population as part of it's total population.

Since then the Madison's population growth continued at a modest to rapid pace with the stark exception of the decade of the 1970's when Madison stood still.

Thanks, that's a nice bit of history. I guess that's why Whitewater claims to have 14,000 people and is by the numbers the poorest city in Wisconsin. Notice I said city not village or town or CDP.

[Milwaukee City]

I know this is a city population thread but I thought I would add some county information as well.


1. Milwaukee County 948,201
2. Dane County 542,364
3. Waukesha County 403,072
4. Brown County 263,378
5. Racine County 196,584
6. Outagamie County 187,365
7. Winnebago County 171,020
8. Kenosha County 169,290
9. Rock County 163,129
10. Marathon County 135,428

[dirt _farmer]

Originally Posted by gymdawg

With Foxconn coming in, Wisconsin ought to be able to stave off Colorado and Minnesota.

Let's check back on this in 5 years!