Milwaukee County’s population increased by 2,880 in 2024, the first year-over-year population increase for the county since 2014, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The county’s population as of July 1, the date the Census Bureau uses for its annual estimates, was 924,740, an increase of 0.31% from the prior year.
The natural change in Milwaukee County’s population – the number of births minus the number of deaths – was similar to 2023 with a net increase of 2,340.
Shifts in migration helped push the county into positive growth. The county saw net migration of 524 for the year, compared to a net decrease of 4,254 in 2023. The change was the result of both an increase in net growth from international migration and a smaller decrease from net domestic outmigration.
Still, the county’s population is down by nearly 15,000 since April 2020. The decline is the result of a 41,790 net resident decrease from domestic migration, offset by an increase of 18,266 from international migration and 9,421 in natural change.
Milwaukee County’s growth also did lag behind the overall state’s population growth, which was 0.52% for the year.
Menominee County, which has a population of just 4,286 as of 2024, led the state with a 1.54% increase.
Dane County was the second fastest growing with a 1.48% increase to 588,347.
In southeastern Wisconsin, Waukesha County saw the strongest growth with a 0.73% increase to 417,029.
Racine and Kenosha counties also outpaced the state growth rate with increases of 0.63% and 0.53% respectively.
Ozaukee County was up 0.47%, Jefferson County increased 0.32%, Sheboygan County increased 0.28%, Washington County was up 0.17% and Walworth County was up 0.02%.
This past year marked the first year this decade that all of the counties in the BizTimes coverage area saw a year-over-year increase in population.
Milwaukee County is the only county in the region that saw a significant natural change in its population. Among the remaining eight counties, only Kenosha County saw a natural change of greater than 100 with a net increase from births and deaths of 154. The other seven counties were either up or down less than 100. They are all also net down in population from natural change since 2020
Waukesha County did benefit from migration with a net increase in 2024 of 2,990, including 1,399 from international sources and 1,591 from domestic.
Racine County also saw a notable shift from migration with an increase of 1,211, roughly evenly split between international and domestic.
The metro Milwaukee area, which includes Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington counties, saw a 0.42% increase in population to 1,574,452. That growth rate ranked 261
st in the country.
The metro area's growth was outpaced by a number of other Midwest metros that are slightly larger than Milwaukee, including Minneapolis-St. Paul, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Columbus, and Indianapolis.
The Chicago metro area, which includes 9.4 million people, grew 0.8% in 2024.
Milwaukee did grow faster than the St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Cleveland metro areas this past year.
Among smaller Midwest metros, those growing faster than Milwaukee included Grand Rapids, Omaha, Allentown, Dayton, Des Moines and Madison.
