Moving to Wisconsin? Check out our guide to Starting a Business in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin is beloved by natives and tourists alike for its lush, diverse geography, world-famous dairy products, and colorful cities. The Badger Street is also a beer drinker’s mecca: home to dozens of breweries, both large and small. If this sounds like your kinda place, check out our overview of Wisconsin’s five best cities to live in for a better idea of where to settle down in the state.
1. Brookfield
Brookfield, a suburb of Milwaukee in Waukesha County, is Wisconsin’s top city. The presence of companies like Fiserv and FedEx account for the city’s strong economy and high median household income.
2. Middleton
#2 Middleton is a modestly sized suburb of the state capital Madison. The city’s motto is “The Good Neighbor City” and Middleton’s friendly residents and small-town charm follow through on that promise. Of note to mustard lovers is the National Mustard Museum, located right in downtown Middleton.
3. Mequon
Our choice for #3 is Mequon, a bucolic lakeshore community in the Milwaukee metropolitan area. For a city its size, Mequon is home to a wide array of parks and nature preserves, over two dozen in all.
4. Sun Prairie
Sun Prairie, Dane County’s second largest city after Madison, is fourth on the list. The city is a quiet alternative to its larger neighbor and a great place to raise a family, as many residents commute to Madison for work.
5. Pewaukee
Rounding out the list is Pewaukee, a pint-sized city in Waukesha County with oodles of Midwestern charm and a high household median income.
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Methodology
We ranked a total of 2,509 qualified cities (those with populations above 25,000 and enough data for analysis) by five factors: employment (number of establishments, median earnings); housing (owner-occupied housing with a mortgage, monthly housing costs); quality of life (work commute, poverty levels); education (percentage with a bachelor’s degree or higher); and health (obesity ratios).