Milwaukee County is a county in Wisconsin, United States, on the western shore of Lake Michigan roughly 90 miles north of Chicago. It had a population of 939,489 at the 2020 census, an estimated 924,216 by 2024, and covers a total of 1,189 square miles (3,080 km2), of which only 241 square miles (620 km2) is dry land and the rest is open water, centred near 43\u00b000\u203200\u2033N 87\u00b058\u203202\u2033W.<\/p>\n
Milwaukee is the county seat and by far its largest city; its postal code is 53202. The county holds 10 cities and 9 villages — 19 municipalities in all — and it runs on Central time. Its FIPS code is 55079. Milwaukee County is the only county in Wisconsin with no unincorporated land left inside it: every acre belongs to a city or a village, and there are no civil towns.<\/p>\n
All 19 places below are fully incorporated municipalities — 10 cities and 9 villages. Wisconsin still recognizes a third municipal type, the civil town, but Milwaukee County has none: the last of its towns were annexed by their neighboring cities decades ago, which is why the county’s own government calls it “completely incorporated,” a status no other Wisconsin county shares.<\/p>\n
| Place<\/th>\n | Type<\/th>\n | Pop.<\/th>\n | ZIP<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n |
|---|---|---|---|
| Milwaukee<\/td>\n | City · seat<\/td>\n | 577,222<\/td>\n | 53202<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| West Allis<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | 60,325<\/td>\n | 53214<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Wauwatosa<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | 48,387<\/td>\n | 53213<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Greenfield<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | 37,803<\/td>\n | 53228<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Franklin<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | 36,816<\/td>\n | 53132<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Oak Creek<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | 36,497<\/td>\n | 53154<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| South Milwaukee<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | 20,795<\/td>\n | 53172<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Cudahy<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | 18,204<\/td>\n | 53110<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Whitefish Bay<\/td>\n | Village<\/td>\n | 14,954<\/td>\n | 53217<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Greendale<\/td>\n | Village<\/td>\n | 14,854<\/td>\n | 53129<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Glendale<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | 13,357<\/td>\n | 53209<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Shorewood<\/td>\n | Village<\/td>\n | 13,859<\/td>\n | 53211<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Brown Deer<\/td>\n | Village<\/td>\n | 12,507<\/td>\n | 53223<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| St. Francis<\/td>\n | City<\/td>\n | 9,161<\/td>\n | 53235<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Hales Corners<\/td>\n | Village<\/td>\n | 7,720<\/td>\n | 53130<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Fox Point<\/td>\n | Village<\/td>\n | 6,934<\/td>\n | 53217<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| West Milwaukee<\/td>\n | Village<\/td>\n | 4,114<\/td>\n | 53214<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Bayside<\/td>\n | Village<\/td>\n | 4,378<\/td>\n | 53217<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| River Hills<\/td>\n | Village<\/td>\n | 1,602<\/td>\n | 53217<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n Bayside straddles the county line: 4,378 of its 4,482 residents live in Milwaukee County and the rest in neighboring Ozaukee County, so the population figure above is the Milwaukee County share only. Some older place lists for this county also carry “Carrollville,” “Granville,” “Oakwood,” “West Granville” and “Saint Martins” — these were unincorporated crossroads and post-office names absorbed by Oak Creek, Milwaukee and Franklin as those cities annexed the surrounding countryside in the mid-20th century. None is a standalone municipality today, so they are omitted here.<\/p>\n ZIP Codes<\/h2>\nThe city of Milwaukee alone spans roughly two dozen ZIP codes from 53201 to 53234; the block above lists only its core downtown code, since a full breakdown belongs to a Milwaukee city page rather than the county list.<\/p>\n Geography<\/h2>\nMilwaukee County sits on the western shore of Lake Michigan, and that lake accounts for most of its 948 square miles of water — only 241 square miles are dry land, making it Wisconsin’s third-smallest county by land area despite being its most populous. The Milwaukee, Menomonee, Kinnickinnic and Root Rivers all cross the county and converge near the downtown harbor. The terrain is gently rolling glacial till over limestone bedrock rich in calcium carbonate.<\/p>\n Ozaukee County borders it to the north, Waukesha County to the west, and Racine County to the south. Lake Michigan forms the entire eastern boundary, with Muskegon and Ottawa Counties in Michigan facing it across the water.<\/p>\n Demographics<\/h2>\nMilwaukee County counted 939,489 residents at the 2020 census, its lowest total since the 1970s, and the Census Bureau’s 2024 estimate puts it at 924,216, a continuing decline. Milwaukee itself holds 577,222 people, more than 60 percent of the county, with West Allis (60,325) and Wauwatosa (48,387) a distant second and third. Median household income countywide is about $64,435, well below the Wisconsin figure of $77,485, reflecting the gap between the city of Milwaukee and its wealthier North Shore suburbs. Density runs roughly 3,900 people per square mile of land, the highest of any Wisconsin county by a wide margin.<\/p>\n Economy & Local Life<\/h2>\nHealth care and social assistance is the county’s largest employment sector with about 76,000 workers, followed by manufacturing at roughly 70,000 and retail trade at about 48,000. Downtown Milwaukee is headquarters to Fortune 500 firms Northwestern Mutual, Fiserv, Rockwell Automation and WEC Energy Group, plus staffing giant ManpowerGroup. West Allis is home to the State Fair Park grounds, which host Wisconsin’s annual State Fair every August and the Milwaukee Mile, the oldest operating motor speedway in the world. Oak Creek added IKEA’s first Wisconsin store in 2018 alongside its long-established coal power plant on the lakefront. Summerfest, billed as the world’s largest music festival, runs on Milwaukee’s lakefront each June and July.<\/p>\n History<\/h2>\nMilwaukee County was created in 1834 as part of Michigan Territory and organized as an independent county on August 25, 1835. It takes its name from the Milwaukee River, itself from an Algonquian-language word most often translated as “gathering place” or “good land”; the exact source language, Potawatomi, Ojibwe or Meskwaki, is still debated by historians. The county originally covered a far larger area, and Waukesha County was split off from its western half in 1846. The city of Milwaukee was incorporated in 1846 from the merger of three rival settlements, Juneautown, Kilbourntown and Walker’s Point, whose founders had fought a real “bridge war” over the Milwaukee River crossings in 1845. Land in the county belonged to the Potawatomi, Menominee, Sauk, Meskwaki and Ojibwe before the 1833 Treaty of Chicago opened it to European settlement. Milwaukee County’s share of the state’s population peaked at about a quarter in the 1930s through 1960s; it has fallen steadily since as growth shifted to the surrounding suburban counties.<\/p>\n Getting There<\/h2>\nInterstate 94 crosses the county east–west through Milwaukee and West Allis, and Interstate 43 runs north–south along the lakefront; the two meet at the Marquette Interchange downtown. Interstate 894 forms a southern bypass through Greenfield and West Allis.<\/p>\n
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