Biggest Cities in Wisconsin

Wisconsin's population is split between the Milwaukee metro (southeastern Lake Michigan coast), the Madison area (south-central), and a ring of mid-sized industrial cities across the state.

Milwaukee — 577,000 (metro: 1.6 million)
Wisconsin's largest city — an industrial city of German, Polish, and African American heritage on the western shore of Lake Michigan. Milwaukee was historically the beer capital of the US (Pabst, Schlitz, Miller, and Blatz were all Milwaukee breweries in their prime — only Miller/Molson Coors remains in significant operation). The Milwaukee Art Museum (Santiago Calatrava's winged building), the Harley-Davidson Museum (in the company's home city), the Historic Third Ward (arts, restaurants, public market), and Fiserv Forum (home of the NBA Bucks) define modern Milwaukee. Northwestern Mutual and Johnson Controls are headquartered here.

Madison — 270,000 (metro: 680,000)
Wisconsin's capital and home of UW-Madison — Madison is built on an isthmus between Lake Mendota and Lake Monona, giving it an unusual geography. The State Street corridor (connecting the Capitol to the university), the Saturday Dane County Farmers' Market (the largest farmers' market in the US by vendor count), the Monona Terrace Convention Center (designed by Frank Lloyd Wright), and the extraordinary restaurant and craft brewery scene make Madison one of the most livable mid-sized cities in the US.

Green Bay — 110,000
The smallest city with an NFL franchise — the Green Bay Packers (founded 1919, the only community-owned major professional sports franchise in the US) are the dominant cultural fact of Green Bay. Lambeau Field (capacity 81,441), the Packers Hall of Fame, and Titletown District give Green Bay more sports destination significance than its size warrants. The city's paper and packaging industries and the Fox River valley manufacturing base give it an industrial identity alongside the football culture.

Kenosha — 100,000
A Lake Michigan city between Milwaukee and Chicago — Kenosha's revitalized lakefront (the electric streetcar line, the Southport Marina, the Kenosha Public Museum on the lake), the Kenosha HarborMarket (Saturday outdoor market), and the Civil War Museum give it more character than its industrial legacy might suggest.