New Census numbers show Madison, Dane Co keep gaining, while MKE keeps losing

The US Census Bureau came out with its annual update of population for all cities, villages and towns in America. And in Wisconsin, the story was a familiar one for the last several years.

Dane County was home to three of the four fastest-growing cities in Wisconsin last year, while the three with the largest population losses were in Milwaukee County, according to numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Madison topped the list, adding about 2,580 residents between 2017 and 2018, according to population estimates released Thursday.

Sun Prairie was No. 2, adding 1,055 people, and Fitchburg No. 4 with 663.

The city of Milwaukee saw the largest drop in population, losing about 1,880 residents, followed by West Allis (down 380) and Franklin (down 268), although the suburban cities of Brookfield and Greenfield were among the five fastest-growing cities.

In fact, Madison, Sun Prairie and Fitchburg alone accounted for nearly 1/5 of Wisconsin’s population growth last year. But Milwaukee continues to bleed people, down over 8,600 since 2015. Very hard for a state to have a great economy when its largest city does that.

A similar pattern repeats for the decade of the 2010s, which is soon to take on extra relevance given that next year’s Census will change the allocation of resources and legislative districts in the state.

Since 2010, Madison, Fitchburg and Sun Prairie have been the three fastest-growing places in Wisconsin. Together they’ve gained more than 34,000 residents — more than the next 18 municipalities on the list, which includes the Dane County communities of Verona, Middleton, Waunakee, DeForest and Oregon.

Madison has added by far the most people out of any community in Wisconsin, as its population has jumped by nearly 25,000 in the 2010s, and now has more than 258,000 people calling it home. As you’ll see here, 5 of the 8 largest gainers in the state are in Dane County, and the rest of the top 10 has 2 suburbs each from Milwaukee and Green Bay, and another blue-voting city with a UW campus.

Meanwhile, Milwaukee’s recent population losses has more than reversed a gain of nearly 6,000 in the first half of this decade, and several mid-size, post-industrial cities join MKE in the list of the largest losers of people the 2010s.

These figures again make me ask “Why doesn’t the rest of the state try to learn what makes Madison and Dane County so attractive to people, and apply it to their communities?” The corollary is also important “Why are we continuing to have our economic policy dictated by Republicans who constantly beat up and handcuff Milwaukee, and how is more of the same going to make this lagging region and state get better?”

This question is especially pointed at the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, which cheered every economically regressive and anti-Milwaukee GOP policy that went through the Legislature during the Age of Fitzwalkerstan. Less corporate rent-seeking, less trickle-down and more community investments seem to be a much better option.

After all, that’s generally how we do it in the growing Mad City, and in the 2010s, people seem to like what the town has to offer. Which is why more of them call it home every year.