Madison, WI
Population: 268,516 (2022) · Large Cities (250K+)
Excellent fiscal health, strong reserves, low debt, well-funded pensions
Spending Breakdown
Spending data sourced from the Census Bureau's Annual Survey of State & Local Government Finances. Per-capita comparisons use the Lincoln Institute's Fiscally Standardized Cities methodology for fair cross-city benchmarking.
Revenue Sources
Per Capita Spending by Department
Score Breakdown
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vs Milwaukee, WIvs Green Bay, WIvs Kenosha, WIOther Cities in Wisconsin
Frequently Asked Questions
Madison, WI spends $21,859 per resident, based on total expenditures of $5.9B for a population of 268,516. The city has a Fiscal Health Score of A (87/100).
Madison, WI has total expenditures of $5.9B and total revenue of $11.3B. The city carries $0 in total debt, based on Census Bureau data from 2023.
Madison, WI employs 0 government workers, of which 0 are full-time. The average government salary is $0, with 0.0 employees per 10,000 residents.
Madison, WI has a Fiscal Health Score of A (87/100). This score evaluates budget balance, debt burden, pension funding, spending efficiency, revenue diversity, and 3-year fiscal trajectory compared to peer cities of similar population.
The this entity record above pulls directly from the Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances. What follows is the per-entity context — how this entity sits in the broader U.S. municipal and county government finances distribution and which underlying factors drive the headline numbers.
The methodology behind every numeric value on this page is publicly documented on the the Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances portal and described in detail on this site’s methodology page. Refresh cadence varies by underlying series; the page surfaces the as-of date for each number so readers can trace any figure back to the source release.
For readers using this page as a decision input, the related-entity pages elsewhere on the site provide the comparison set. The most useful comparison for this entity is typically a peer within U.S. cities, counties, and states with similar size, similar exposure, or similar geography — not the national-level summary alone.