Milwaukee Map
Three rivers meet a few hundred yards before they reach Lake Michigan, and Milwaukee grew around that junction — about 564,000 residents in 2024, the largest city in Wisconsin.
Where is Milwaukee?
Milwaukee stands on the western shore of Lake Michigan in the southeastern corner of Wisconsin, close enough to the Illinois line that its southern suburbs run toward Chicago's northern ones. Bluffs stand along most of the lakefront, with a gap where the rivers cut through. The city is about 90 miles north of Chicago, roughly 80 miles east of Madison, and some 340 miles east of Minneapolis.
Milwaukee at a glance
| State | Wisconsin |
| Counties | Milwaukee, Washington, and Waukesha counties |
| Population | 563,531 (2024 Census estimate) |
| Rank among US cities | No. 31 of the 100 largest |
| Time zone | Central Time |
| Region | Midwest (East North Central division) |
Another 4,740 residents would lift Milwaukee past Baltimore into No. 30; 3,205 fewer would put it behind Albuquerque at No. 32. Madison is the only other Wisconsin city on the list. That is about 9% of Wisconsin's 5.96 million residents inside a single municipal line. It reaches into three counties, of which Milwaukee County is much the largest: the city holds about 61% of that county's 924,740 people.
Milwaukee in Wisconsin
Almost all of Milwaukee lies in Milwaukee County, one of the smallest of Wisconsin's 72 counties in area and much the largest by population — the Wisconsin county map shows how tightly it is drawn, with slivers of the city crossing into Waukesha and Washington counties. Madison, 80 miles west, is the capital and the state's other large city, and Green Bay sits at the head of its own bay to the north. The Wisconsin state page covers the whole state, from this shoreline to the Mississippi.
A harbor where three rivers meet
The Milwaukee, Menomonee and Kinnickinnic rivers join within a mile of Lake Michigan, and the marshy flats around that confluence gave the city a sheltered inner harbor instead of an open roadstead — the reason a port grew here rather than at any of the smaller river mouths up and down the shore. Ridges left by the retreating ice sheet run north and south behind the city, and the Kettle Moraine, a textbook stretch of glacial landform west of town, marks where two ice lobes met. Lake breezes hold the shoreline noticeably cooler than inland Wisconsin through early summer.
Cities near Milwaukee
Nearby on the map are Chicago, Madison, Minneapolis, St. Paul and Detroit. The Great Lakes page covers the water all of them share.