Madison, WI
Madison, WI Metro Area
Figures are medians for the whole Madison, WI Metro Area, not the city proper.
Among the 300 U.S. metros CityLedger tracks, Madison ranks 40th for affordability — how far a typical paycheck stretches after local prices — and 56th for income. A household earns $89,714 a year while median rent runs $1,437/mo, making it comfortably affordable for what residents earn. Affordability and price level are different lenses: the raw cost of living here runs 3% below the U.S. average.
Its strongest card is health (6th of 300), while home prices is the soft spot (227th). Housing usually decides a move: rent ranks 192nd and home prices 227th among the 300 metros CityLedger tracks.
For your salary & household
Enter your pay and household size to see what it's really worth here — the numbers update live and the link stays shareable.
On $75,000 for just you in Madison, your take-home is worth about $60,084 once local prices are factored in — local prices stretch it further than the U.S. average.
Take-home estimates a single filer taking the standard deduction (2025 federal brackets, FICA, and state income tax) and isn't tax advice. “Real value” rebases take-home to average U.S. prices using the BEA cost-of-living index; the per-person figure uses the OECD square-root equivalence scale.
The numbers
Income & cost
- Median income
- 56th of 300↑18.8%$89,714
- Cost of living?The local price level vs. the U.S. average of 100 (BEA). Lower means cheaper. This is raw prices, not adjusted for income.
- 184th of 30097 (US=100)
- Cost-adj. income?Median household income divided by the local price level — what the typical paycheck is really worth here.
- $92,216
- Per-capita income
- $52,204
- Full-time pay
- $51,616
Housing
- Median rent
- 192nd of 300↑32.1%$1,437/mo
- Home value
- 227th of 300↑50.2%$415,500
- Property tax
- $5,977/yr · 1.4%
- Sales tax
- 5.70%
Jobs & education
- Unemployment
- 7th of 3002.2%
- Bachelor's+
- 13th of 30052.2%
- Avg commute
- 69th of 30021.9 min
People
- Population
- 707,606
- Population change
- +6.4%
- Median age
- 37.2 yrs
- Foreign-born
- 8.3%
- Broadband
- 92.4%
Environment & risk
- Air quality (AQI)
- 97th of 30042
- Natural-hazard loss
- 49th of 300$9/$10k
Health
- Fair/poor health
- 6th of 30013.7%
- Uninsured (18–64)
- 6.9%
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau (ACS), U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. EPA, FEMA, CDC, NOAA — every figure's source is listed on our methodology page. Data built 2026-06-14. ↑↓ mark the change since 2019.
How CityLedger scores it
Transparent weights — see our methodology.
Strengths
- + Affordability
- + Household income
- + Job market
- + Education
- + Commute
- + Air quality
- + Hazard safety
- + Health
Watch-outs
- – Home prices
Climate
30-year normals (1991–2020) from the nearest station — madison dane co rgnl ap.
What jobs pay in Madison
Median annual wage by occupation (BLS OEWS 2025) — half of workers in each role earn more, half less.
- Family medicine physicians
- $291,000
- IT managers
- $168,900
- Pharmacists
- $158,120
- Financial managers
- $148,970
- Software developers
- $130,630
- General & operations managers
- $126,620
- Lawyers
- $124,130
- Registered nurses
- $101,190
- Civil engineers
- $99,010
- Plumbers
- $85,160
- Web developers
- $83,500
- Accountants & auditors
- $81,130
- Police officers
- $80,580
- Electricians
- $78,430
- Secondary school teachers
- $64,080
- Elementary school teachers
- $63,690
- Carpenters
- $63,480
- Truck drivers (heavy)
- $59,700
- Maintenance & repair workers
- $57,330
- Construction laborers
- $57,000
- Customer service reps
- $47,500
- Janitors
- $39,680
- Retail salespersons
- $35,830
- Cashiers
- $34,550
- Waiters & waitresses
- $30,910
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS 2025 — annual median wage. Cross-industry, all experience levels.
Where new residents move from
The states sending the most people to the Madison metro, by estimated movers (U.S. Census 2022 migration flows, 5-year). Moves from elsewhere in Wisconsin are excluded to show where out-of-state arrivals originate.
- Illinois4,722
- Minnesota2,308
- California1,727
- Michigan1,638
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2022 Migration Flows (5-year).
Cities like Madison
Closest matches across cost, income, size, education, and age — tap to compare.
Madison metro — frequently asked
- What is the median rent in the Madison metro?
- Median gross rent across the Madison, WI Metro Area is $1,437 a month (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024). That figure covers the whole metro area, not just the city of Madison.
- What is the median household income in the Madison metro?
- A typical household in the Madison, WI Metro Area earns $89,714 a year (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- Is Madison expensive to live in?
- The overall cost of living in the Madison, WI Metro Area runs about 3% below the U.S. average (BEA Regional Price Parities, 2024) — prices are lower than average, before accounting for local pay.
- Does a paycheck go far in the Madison metro?
- After adjusting for local prices, the median household income is worth about $92,216 (versus its face value of $89,714). CityLedger rates the Madison, WI Metro Area comfortably affordable for what residents earn.
- What is the typical home value in the Madison metro?
- The median home value across the Madison, WI Metro Area is $415,500 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- What is the unemployment rate in the Madison metro?
- The unemployment rate in the Madison, WI Metro Area is 2.2% (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).