Metro Life Score

Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI

Compiled byPlainCompare Editorial, PlainCompare Editorial Team · Updated May 16, 2026

53.5
Life Score / 100: B
Grade (curved): #150
of 387 metros: 61%
of metros outranked

Data updated May 2026

Verify: BEA · BLS · HUD · FBI · NCES · EPA · Census

The verdict

Milwaukee ranks #150 of 387 US metros, ahead of 61% - carried by its wages (80/100) and held back most by cost of living (33/100).

80
strongest: Wages: 61
then: Safety: 33
weakest: Cost of Living: 7
weighted dimensions

Where Milwaukee sits among all US metros

Composite Life Score vs the national field

54 61th percentile higher than 61% of 387 US metros

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US metros. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source PlainCompare composite of BEA, BLS, HUD, FBI, NCES, DOL, EPA data · May 2026

How the score is built

Reading the Milwaukee Life Score

Milwaukee's composite score of 53.5 out of 100, a grade of B, places the metro at rank #150 of 387, ahead of 61% of US metros. The strongest inputs are Wages (80/100) and Safety (61/100), which pull the composite upward, while Cost of Living (33/100) and Childcare (41/100) drag it downward. (How the weighting works.)

BEA RPP 96.9 (rent-RPP 97.1). BLS median salary $71,499, 800,340 jobs (Home Health and Personal Care Aides, Registered Nurses, Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand). HUD 2BR FMR $1,338/mo (studio $1,027).

FBI UCR (WI): 280 violent, 1157 property/100K. NCES: 14.4:1 ratio, 10.7% charter. DOL infant childcare $11,256/yr. EPA: 46 Superfund sites (WI). Ranks #147-#153 below.

Dimension detail

How Milwaukee scores, dimension by dimension

Score Breakdown

Dimension Scores

Cost of Living 33/100 (20%)

Wages 80/100 (20%)

Rent 46/100 (15%)

Safety 61/100 (15%)

Schools 48/100 (10%)

Childcare 41/100 (10%)

Environment 59/100 (10%)

Key Data Points

96.9

Cost Index (RPP)

$71,499

Avg Median Salary

$1,338

2BR Fair Market Rent

280

Violent Crime/100K (WI)

14.4:1

Student-Teacher Ratio

$11,256

Infant Childcare/yr (WI)

Superfund Sites (WI)

800,340

Total Employment

Crime, schools, childcare, and environment data shown at state level where metro-specific data is unavailable.

Compare Milwaukee With...

Milwaukee vs Wausau Compare → Milwaukee vs Duluth Compare → Milwaukee vs Oshkosh Compare → Milwaukee vs Wildwood Compare → Milwaukee vs Waterloo Compare → Milwaukee vs Paducah Compare →

Ranking Context

Milwaukee outranks 61% of U.S. metros.

Rank	Metro	Score	Grade
#147	Racine-Mount Pleasant, WI	53.6	B
#148	Janesville-Beloit, WI	53.6	B
#149	Salt Lake City-Murray, UT	53.8	B
#150	Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI	53.5	B
#151	Eagle Pass, TX	53.4	B
#152	Auburn-Opelika, AL	53.3	B
#153	Baton Rouge, LA	53.2	B

WI Metro Scores

Wausau, WI A- 61.1 Duluth, MN-WI A- 60.2 Oshkosh-Neenah, WI A- 60.1 Sheboygan, WI A- 59.8 La Crosse-Onalaska, WI-MN A- 59.1 Madison, WI B+ 56.9

Using Milwaukee's Life Score

Milwaukee is a regional baseline, not a neighborhood reading, use it to shortlist, then dig into the dimensions that matter to you.

Its strongest dimension is wages (80/100) and its weakest is cost of living (33/100) - weigh those against your own priorities. How the score is built
Put Milwaukee head-to-head against another metro before you decide, every dimension, side by side. Compare metros
See where Milwaukee lands on the national rankings for cost, safety, pay and more. Browse rankings

Scores summarize federal data at the metro level; crime, schools and cost vary widely within a single metro.

Explore more

Frequently Asked Questions

What are Milwaukee's biggest strengths? ▼

Milwaukee's strongest dimensions are Wages (80/100), Safety (61/100), Environment (59/100). Wages is top-tier nationally.

What are Milwaukee's weakest areas? ▼

Milwaukee's lowest-scoring dimensions are Cost of Living (33/100), Childcare (41/100), Rent (46/100). Cost of Living weighs heavily on the composite.

How expensive is Milwaukee compared to the national average? ▼

Milwaukee's Regional Price Parity is 96.9 (3.1% less than national); rent RPP 97.1.

What is the average salary in Milwaukee? ▼

Milwaukee median salary: $71,499, 800,340 jobs. Top: Home Health and Personal Care Aides, Registered Nurses, Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand.

How is the life score calculated? ▼

Milwaukee's 53.5/100 blends 7 federal-data dimensions - see our methodology page for the weighting.

Research Guides

Data from BEA, HUD, FBI UCR, BLS OES, NCES, DOL, and EPA. Not affiliated with the U.S. Government.

Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainCompare Editorial

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

All federal data sources used on this page

U.S. Census Bureau ACS - multi-dimension demographic + housing + income aggregates for cross-area comparison. census.gov/programs-surveys/acs
BEA Regional Economic Accounts - GDP, personal income, employment by state and metro. bea.gov/data/regional
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) - wage estimates for comparable-area indexing. bls.gov/oes
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) - crime statistics for safety-score component. fbi.gov/ucr
NCES Common Core of Data - public-school quality indicators by area. nces.ed.gov/ccd
EPA AirNow + Air Quality System (AQS) - air-quality measurements by area. epa.gov/outdoor-air-quality-data
HUD Fair Market Rents (FMR) - county and metro housing-cost indicators. huduser.gov/datasets/fmr

Every figure on PlainCompare is loaded directly from BEA, HUD, FBI UCR, BLS OEWS, NCES, DOL, EPA, and the Census Bureau, no number is typed in by an editor. This metro's Life Score is computed directly from the 7 federal sources cited above. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.