Wisconsin is a first-level division of United States, in North America. Its mapped cities centre on 44.0745° N, 89.0940° W.

What is the largest city in Wisconsin?

Milwaukee is the largest city mapped in Wisconsin, with a metropolitan population of about 1.39 million.

How many cities are in Wisconsin?

YearMaps maps 18 cities and towns in Wisconsin, with a combined metropolitan population of about 3.11 million. This counts mapped settlements, not every municipality.

What is the largest lake in Wisconsin?

The largest lake mapped in or beside Wisconsin is Lake Michigan, at about 58,387 km².

Wisconsin Map — Cities & Geography, United States

Interactive Map of Wisconsin

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About Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a state in the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. With a population of about 6 million and an area of about 65,500 square miles (170,000 km2), Wisconsin is the 21st-largest state by population and the 23rd-largest by area. It is divided into 72 counties. The state's most populous city is Milwaukee, while its capital and second-most populous city is Madison. Other urban areas include Green Bay and the Fox Cities.

Wisconsin's geography is diverse, with dense forests in the north (including Chequamegon–Nicolet National Forest), rugged unglaciated hills in the western Driftless Area, and wooded plains, lowlands, and farms stretching from the interior east to Lake Michigan. Wisconsin has the third-longest Great Lakes coastline, after Ontario and Michigan. At the time of European contact, the area was inhabited by Algonquian and Siouan nations, and today it is home to eleven federally recognized tribes. Wisconsin was originally part of the Northwest Territory and was admitted as a state in 1848. Many European settlers entered the state during the 19th and early 20th centuries, predominantly from Germany and Scandinavia. Wisconsin remains a center of German American and Scandinavian American culture, particularly in its cuisine, with foods such as bratwurst and kringle.

Wisconsin is one of the nation's leading dairy producers and is known as "America's Dairyland"; it is particularly famous for its cheese. The state is also recognized for its breweries, a longstanding beer industry centered in Milwaukee, relatively permissive alcohol laws, and a prominent drinking culture. Its economy is dominated by manufacturing, healthcare, information technology, and agriculture—specifically dairy, cranberries, and ginseng. Tourism is also a major contributor to its economy.

Summary adapted from Wikipedia: Wisconsin (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Wisconsin in Depth

History

Wisconsin has been home to a wide variety of cultures over the past 14,000 years. The first people arrived around 10,000 BCE during the Wisconsin Glaciation. These early inhabitants, called Paleo-Indians, hunted now-extinct ice age animals such as the Boaz mastodon, a prehistoric mastodon skeleton unearthed along with spear points in southwest Wisconsin. After the ice age ended around 8000 BCE, people in the subsequent Archaic period lived by hunting, fishing, and gathering food from wild plants. Agricultural societies emerged gradually over the Woodland period between 1000 BCE to 1000 CE. Toward the end of this period, Wisconsin was the heartland of the "Effigy Mound culture", which built thousands of animal-shaped mounds across the landscape.

Geography

Wisconsin is in the Midwestern United States and is part of both the Great Lakes region and the Upper Midwest. The state has a total area of 65,496 square miles (169,630 km2). Wisconsin is bordered by Lake Superior and Michigan to the north; by Lake Michigan to the east; by Illinois to the south; and by Iowa to the southwest and Minnesota to the northwest. A border dispute with Michigan was settled by two cases, both Wisconsin v. Michigan, in 1934 and 1935. The state's boundaries include the Mississippi River and St. Croix River in the west, and the Menominee River and Montreal River in the northeast.

Lying between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River, Wisconsin has a wide variety of geographical features. The state is divided into five distinct regions.

Economy

In 2025, Wisconsin's gross state product was $473 billion and its per capita personal income was $70,570. Wisconsin's economy is driven by manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism. As of May 2025, the state's unemployment rate was 3.3%. Since 2009, Wisconsin's minimum wage has been $7.25, the same as the federal rate. In 2025, 99.4% of businesses in Wisconsin were small businesses and they employed 48.0% of the state's workforce.

Eight corporations based in Wisconsin are listed on the Fortune 500. In 2024, the list included Northwestern Mutual, Fiserv, ManpowerGroup, Rockwell Automation, and WEC Energy Group (all based in Milwaukee), as well as Kohl's (based in Menomonee Falls), American Family Insurance (based in Madison), and Oshkosh Corporation (based in Oshkosh).

Demographics

The United States Census Bureau estimated Wisconsin's population at 5,822,434 on July 1, 2019, a 2.4% increase since the 2010 United States census. This included a natural increase since the last census of 150,659 people (i.e., 614,771 births minus 464,112 deaths) and a decrease due to net migration of 12,755 people. Immigration resulted in a net increase of 59,251 people, and migration from within the U.S. resulted in a net decrease of 72,006 people.

Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Wisconsin (CC BY-SA 4.0).

History of Wisconsin: Empires and States

One mapped polity is recorded over Wisconsin: United States of America, 1836–2024 CE.

Polities that held Wisconsin, in chronological order
Polity	Period here
United States of America	1836–2024 CE

Historical Maps of Wisconsin

Wisconsin on the world map in each year one of these states held it:

Derived by testing mapped cities against dated territorial polygons. Dates are when the polygons cover this place, not the polity's whole lifespan, and polities absent from the source dataset are not listed.

Visiting Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a state in the Midwest in the United States of America. Being home to two Great Lakes, thousands of inland lakes and waterways, the state could easily be called the nation's "waterworld". Tourism is one of Wisconsin's largest industries, relying on people from Illinois and others who enter during the summer for fishing and its parks and recreational facilities such as those in Wisconsin Dells, those entering during the fall for a very popular hunting season, and winter for ice-fishing, ice-sailing, ice-skating, skiing and snowboarding, snowmobiling, etc.

The southern portion of the state is mainly agricultural and urban while the northern half is mostly rural and forested and is more similar in appearance to Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The central region acts as a transition zone with both forests, farm land and small cities. The state's largest city and urban area is Milwaukee in southeastern Wisconsin. In south-central Wisconsin lies the state capital Madison. Green Bay is listed as the state's third largest city.

Travel notes adapted from Wikivoyage: Wisconsin (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Largest Cities in Wisconsin

18 cities mapped. Ranked by metropolitan population. A port city's harbour is written up on the page of its sea.

Largest Cities in Wisconsin
#	Name	Population	Region	Role
1	Milwaukee	1.39 million	Wisconsin	Populated place
2	Madison	327,447	Wisconsin	Admin-1 capital
3	Waukesha	249,912	Wisconsin	Populated place
4	Appleton	203,665	Wisconsin	Populated place
5	Green Bay	198,611	Wisconsin	Populated place
6	Racine	131,654	Wisconsin	Populated place
7	La Crosse	87,381	Wisconsin	Populated place
8	Eau Claire	79,740	Wisconsin	Populated place
9	Wausau	75,422	Wisconsin	Populated place
10	Oshkosh	72,698	Wisconsin	Populated place
11	Janesville	69,278	Wisconsin	Populated place
12	Fond du Lac	54,299	Wisconsin	Populated place
13	Sheboygan	53,705	Wisconsin	Populated place
14	West Bend	34,530	Wisconsin	Populated place
15	Superior	27,580	Wisconsin	Populated place
16	Marinette	27,169	Wisconsin	Populated place
17	Tomah	12,997	Wisconsin	Populated place
18	Rhinelander	11,483	Wisconsin	Populated place

Largest Lakes in Wisconsin

3 lakes mapped. Ranked by mapped surface area. A lake on a border is listed under each country it lies in, with the area of the whole lake. Assigned by the nearest mapped city, so features near the boundary may belong to a neighbouring division.

Largest Lakes in Wisconsin
#	Name	Surface Area	Type
1	Lake Michigan	58,387 km²	Lake
2	Lake Winnebago	501 km²	Lake
3	Petenwell Lake	168 km²	Reservoir

Ports in Wisconsin

16 ports mapped. Ranked by approach channel depth, the figure that limits which ships can call. Harbours link to their write-up on the page of the sea or coast they lie on. Assigned by the nearest mapped city, so features near the boundary may belong to a neighbouring division.

Ports in Wisconsin
#	Name	Channel Depth	Class	Sea	Max Vessel
1	Kenosha	56.7 m	Very Small	Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway	medium vessels
2	Two Rivers	56.7 m	Very Small	Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway	medium vessels
3	Kewaunee	56.7 m	Very Small	Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway	medium vessels
4	Algoma	56.7 m	Very Small	Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway	medium vessels
5	Kaukauna	56.7 m	Very Small	Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway	medium vessels
6	Oconto	56.7 m	Very Small	Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway	medium vessels
7	Racine	53 m	Small	Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway	medium vessels
8	Sheboygan	53 m	Small	Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway	medium vessels
9	Manitowoc	49.4 m	Minor	Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway	large vessels
10	Sturgeon Bay	49.4 m	Small	Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway	large vessels

The other 6 (channel depth, class, sea, max vessel)

Menominee · 49.4 m · Small · Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway · medium vessels
Port Washington · 45.7 m · Small · Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway · medium vessels
Depere · 45.7 m · Very Small · Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway · medium vessels
Milwaukee · 45.7 m · Minor · Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway · medium vessels
Green Bay · 45.7 m · Small · Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway · medium vessels
Superior · 45.7 m · Minor · Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway · large vessels

Wisconsin: Quick Answers

Where is Wisconsin?: Wisconsin is a first-level division of United States, in North America. Its mapped cities centre on 44.0745° N, 89.0940° W.
What is the largest city in Wisconsin?: Milwaukee is the largest city mapped in Wisconsin, with a metropolitan population of about 1.39 million.
How many cities are in Wisconsin?: YearMaps maps 18 cities and towns in Wisconsin, with a combined metropolitan population of about 3.11 million. This counts mapped settlements, not every municipality.
What is the largest lake in Wisconsin?: The largest lake mapped in or beside Wisconsin is Lake Michigan, at about 58,387 km².