Wisconsin
Milwaukee logged lowest number of births on record in 2025, what’s behind the trend
In step with global and national trends, Milwaukee logged its lowest number of births on record in 2025, with just over 7,300 babies born in the city last year.
As of Jan. 5, Milwaukee had recorded 7,343 births in 2025, though that number will likely be closer to 7,386 once records are finalized, according to John D. Johnson, a research fellow at Marquette Law School’s Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education.
That’s a 5% decline from 2024 and nearly 22% decline from 2019, when birth rates dipped sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year marked the lowest number of births on record since the state began collecting data in 1990, but Johnson noted it’s also likely the lowest since the 1960s, when Milwaukee’s population reached peak levels.
Still, following the pandemic drop-off, Milwaukee’s birth count had stabilized slightly between 2022 and 2024. Last year, however, the drop was the steepest in several years.
“None of this is surprising,” Johnson said. “Declining birth rates, in general, are super normal, but I don’t have an answer for what happened [in 2025]. It’s a concerning sign for the city.”
Along with people simply having fewer children than they used to, experts say a lack of affordable homes, health care and childcare are all driving the trend. Locally, parents say social isolation and diminishing resources for new families are also making it more difficult to raise kids in Milwaukee.
Why are fewer people having kids in Milwaukee?
The reasons births are declining in Milwaukee largely mirror the reasons births are declining nationally and globally, according to Noelle Chesley, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Some of those reasons are structural, like the skyrocketing costs of child care and declining access to affordable health care, Chesley said. Others are demographic, including a decline in the number of teenage parents and a growing divide between people who do and don’t want children.
Recent surveys have shown men are more likely to want kids than women; conservative-leaning people more likely to want kids than liberal-leaning people; and religious people more likely than non-religious, Chesley said. That could partly explain why the number of babies born in Milwaukee dropped throughout the 2010s, while the numbers in the surrounding suburbs remained relatively stable, she said.
“We’re so split politically between our city and the suburbs,” she said. “There could be an extent of out-migration to the suburbs as people have kids.”
Statewide, school enrollment data tells a similar story: throughout the 2000s and 2010s, enrollment in suburban school districts increased, while rural school enrollment continually declined, according to Sarah Kemp, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Applied Population Lab. Urban school districts, including Milwaukee, saw relatively steady enrollment through the 2010s, but the pandemic brought a sharp decline in student enrollment in most Wisconsin cities.
“There’s maybe not housing available for those young families to move into, or maybe the opportunities aren’t there for young families to find employment, and that may then show up in the school districts with declining enrollment,” Kemp said.
In the long term, declining birth rates will continue to strain social safety nets nationwide, namely the Social Security system, Chesley said. Wisconsin also logged its lowest-ever number of births last year, with 59,517 babies born in 2025, compared to more than 72,000 in 1990, according to the state Department of Health Services.
“When you have too many older people and not enough young people, you might see things like not having enough staff to run healthcare and nursing homes. You might not have enough people running restaurants, grocery stores or other businesses,” Chesley said. “There just could be chronic labor shortages.”
Milwaukee’s north side zip codes see steepest decline in births
The disparity in birth numbers isn’t just between the city and suburbs: Milwaukee’s north and south side neighborhoods have seen the largest decreases in births over the past few years, according to Johnson.
That’s likely because some neighborhoods in the city – downtown, the upper east side, lower east side and Bayview – were already seeing lower birth rates, and other neighborhoods are now catching up, Johnson said. However, the lack of resources for pregnant people and young families could also be driving parents-to-be to move out of certain neighborhoods at higher rates, he said.
Milwaukee’s 53209 zip code, which includes the neighborhoods of Menomonee River Parkway and Rufus King, saw 235 fewer births in 2025 than 2019. The neighboring 53218 zip code logged 182 fewer births, and the 53225 zip code, 134 fewer in the same time period. Most other neighborhoods saw declines below 100 births.
Dalvery Blackwell, president and founder of the African American Breastfeeding Network, said while affordability is a struggle for young families citywide, Black families face the largest barriers. The Breastfeeding Network works to decrease the Black maternal and infant mortality rate in Milwaukee, including by training doulas to support people of color through their pregnancies and births.
“The disparities are higher than any other ethnic group when we look at Black families being able to access quality health care, childcare or even housing,” Blackwell said. “The resources are just not available in large part due to systemic racism and social economic inequalities.”
In addition to decades of research, Blackwell’s assessments have been borne out in recent history: In the past few years, the north side has seen several grocery stores, a pediatric doctor’s office and a youth food program all shutter. All five of the Milwaukee Public Schools recently selected for potential permanent closure are clustered on the north side, though Superintendent Brenda Cassellius said she isn’t ready to recommend those schools for closure this fall.
Parents look for community despite social isolation
As births decline, those who do chose to have kids in the Milwaukee area say early parenthood can be stressful, anxiety-inducing and – above all in a post-pandemic world – lonely.
In March 2020, Heather Puente, health officer for the Cudahy Health Department, had just come back from maternity leave with her second child.
“COVID hits, and I was still breastfeeding,” Puente said. “I was pumping, coming home and showering before I could even see the kids or hold my baby. It was one of the honestly worst times that I can think of.”
With her first baby, Puente said she leaned on support groups and free resources for moms through local hospitals, but these these support systems have been diminishing, notably in Cudahy and Milwaukee’s south side. In 2022, Ascension St. Francis Hospital closed its labor and delivery unit.
In the absence of larger support systems, some parents are working to create and provide their own free resources for young families. Puente is a board member for Park Pals WI, a Milwaukee-area nonprofit organizing free programming to children and their families, in hopes of connecting both kids and parents with one another.
A need for connection is also what drove Mequon resident Stephanie Ciatti to start Babbling Babes MKE, a social club for moms across the Milwaukee area. When pregnant with her third child, Ciatti said she “made a vow” to herself to start visiting the coffee shops, stores and restaurants she had loved before becoming a mom but began to feel inaccessible with small children.
Going with a group of other parents made the experience less intimidating, she said. These gatherings have also become a space for moms to connect over their struggles with limited maternity leave, postpartum support and other challenges of raising kids in the city.
“We need to do a better job nurturing those moms in the first year of life when isolation is so high, especially with winters in Wisconsin,” Ciatti said. “If you really lay out the facts, the support does not equal what these women are going through.”
Frank Lloyd Wright spent nearly five decades building and rebuilding Taliesin, his home and architecture school in the hills just outside Spring Green, before it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019. Bayfield, the smallest incorporated city in Wisconsin at roughly 600 residents, runs as the mainland gateway to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. Lake Geneva preserves a 21-mile public-access shore path that has stayed open since 1888 through an easement granted by the original lakefront landowners. Rib Mountain near Wausau rises out of central Wisconsin as a 1.7-billion-year-old quartzite ridge, one of the oldest geological features in North America. The eleven Wisconsin towns below each run on a different version of slow time.
Lake Geneva
Lake Geneva grew up in the late 19th century as a summer retreat for wealthy Chicago families. The Geneva Lake Shore Path traces the entire 21-mile shoreline as a public-access easement granted by the original lakefront landowners, passing 19th-century estates including the Wrigley, Maytag, Drake, and Schwinn family homes. Black Point Estate and Gardens, a preserved Queen Anne-style mansion on the south shore, opens for public guided boat tours in summer through the Wisconsin Historical Society.
For a different perspective, Lake Geneva Cruise Line runs narrated boat tours including the still-operating US Mail Boat Tour, where a runner jumps from the moving boat to deliver mail to lakeside homes (a tradition dating to 1916 that operates June through mid-September).
Ladysmith
Ladysmith sits along the Flambeau River in northern Wisconsin and was established in 1885. The annual Northland Mardi Gras each July packs a four-day craft fair, parade, and lighted boat parade into a town of fewer than 4,000. The Rusk County Historical Society Museum holds multiple buildings on its grounds, including a replica of the Gates County Courthouse and the Little Red Schoolhouse, with permanent collections covering logging history, antique farm machinery, and military artifacts.
Memorial Park along the Flambeau River anchors community events. The Reclaimed Flambeau Mine Site, a former copper-zinc mine restored to natural habitat, runs walking trails through prairie and woodland on the reclaimed property.
Lake Hallie
Lake Hallie sits just north of Eau Claire on the lake of the same name. The public boat launch handles bass and northern pike fishing in summer and ice fishing in winter. Pinehurst Park covers the year-round outdoor side: bike trails for various skill levels in warmer months, then snowboarding, skiing, and tubing at the park hill once snow falls.
Lake Hallie Golf runs a well-kept course with a driving range and pro shop. The Lake Hallie Sportsman’s Club hosts community fishing contests and steak feeds throughout the year.
Thiensville
Thiensville runs along the Milwaukee River north of its namesake city. The Main Street Historic District holds early 20th-century commercial architecture from the village’s plank-road days. The Green Bay Road Historic District covers the horse-and-buggy era buildings further out.
The Ozaukee Interurban Trail, a 30-mile rail-trail running between Mequon and Belgium, passes through Thiensville with paved biking and walking access. Village Park hosts the Thiensville Village Market every Saturday from June through October, with local produce, artisanal goods, and live music drawing regular weekend crowds.
Bayfield
Bayfield sits on Lake Superior at the northern tip of the Bayfield Peninsula and is the smallest incorporated city in Wisconsin, with roughly 600 year-round residents on less than one square mile. It serves as the mainland gateway to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, which protects 21 of the 22 Apostle Islands across 69,540 acres of Lake Superior shoreline and water. Apostle Islands Cruises runs narrated sightseeing tours out to the sea caves and historic lighthouses, and local outfitters guide kayak trips into the sandstone caves carved along the cliffs.
Bayfield’s 50-block Historic District dates to its turn-of-the-century timber, fishing, and brownstone boom, when the Queen Anne mansions and commercial storefronts along Rittenhouse Avenue went up. Eckels Pottery, the oldest pottery studio in the state, still operates downtown, and the Bayfield Maritime Museum covers the town’s fishing and lighthouse-keeping past. Bayfield bills itself as the Berry Capital of Wisconsin, and its annual Applefest each October draws crowds far larger than the resident population. A car ferry crosses the channel to Madeline Island, the one Apostle island left out of the national lakeshore and the site of La Pointe, among the oldest European settlements in the state.
Mineral Point
Mineral Point in Iowa County is the third-oldest city in Wisconsin, settled in 1827 during the lead-mining boom that drew waves of Cornish miners from southwestern England. The dugouts those early miners burrowed into the hillsides reportedly resembled badger dens, which is one origin story for Wisconsin’s Badger State nickname. The town of about 2,500 sits roughly 50 miles west of Madison, and its historic district (the first in Wisconsin listed on the National Register of Historic Places) holds more than 500 structures, including 1840s Cornish limestone cottages.
Pendarvis, a cluster of restored stone and timber miners’ cottages on Shake Rag Street operated by the Wisconsin Historical Society, preserves the Cornish settlement and runs costumed-interpreter tours seasonally. High Street holds the densest row of 19th-century commercial buildings in the state, now filled with galleries and pottery studios that have turned Mineral Point into an arts town. The Red Rooster Cafe has served Cornish pasties and figgyhobbin for decades, and the Cornish Festival each September keeps the heritage going. The Mineral Point Railroad Museum occupies the oldest surviving depot in Wisconsin, which operated between 1856 and 1984.
New London
New London sits at the confluence of the Wolf and Embarrass Rivers. The town adopts the name “New Dublin” each year for the St. Patrick’s Day weekend (typically the weekend closest to March 17), with a parade, Irish music, and traditional food drawing thousands. Mosquito Hill Nature Center, a 430-acre Outagamie County natural area, runs hiking trails, summit-overlook viewpoints, and educational programming on the local ecology.
The Heritage Historical Village holds restored period buildings and artifacts covering the area’s settlement. The Newton Blackmour State Trail, a 23-mile rail-trail, passes through town for biking, hiking, and winter snowmobiling.
Spring Green
Spring Green is a village of just over 1,400 people in the Driftless hills of southwestern Wisconsin, on the north bank of the Wisconsin River. Its identity runs almost entirely through Frank Lloyd Wright, who spent boyhood summers in the valley with his mother’s family and then spent nearly five decades, beginning in 1911, building and rebuilding Taliesin, his home, studio, and architecture school, into the brow of a hill just south of town. Wright used local limestone and sand dredged from the Wisconsin River to make the buildings look like they grew out of the landscape. Taliesin was named a National Historic Landmark in 1976 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019.
Spring Green carries more than Wright. The American Players Theatre, an outdoor classical-theater company widely rated among the best in the country, stages Shakespeare and other repertory in a wooded amphitheater through the summer season. The House on the Rock, Alex Jordan’s eccentric hilltop complex south of town, holds oddities including the world’s largest indoor carousel. The Spring Green Preserve, sometimes called the Wisconsin Desert, protects a rare landscape of sand prairie and prickly pear cactus on the bluffs above the river.
Sister Bay
Sister Bay is a Door County village of fewer than 1,000 residents on the Green Bay side of the Door Peninsula. Sister Bay Beach gives the waterfront a grassy public edge, and the pier and Sister Bay Marina put the harbor within a short walk of downtown. Sister Bay Scenic Boat Tours runs easygoing cruises out onto Green Bay, and the village fills with visitors through the summer and the fall-color weeks without ever losing its unhurried feel.
The town’s best-known address is Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant and Butik, where goats graze on the grass-covered sod roof through the warm months while the kitchen turns out Swedish pancakes and meatballs below. The waterfront dining scene runs well beyond it, and the surrounding peninsula keeps state parks, orchards, and shoreline drives within easy reach for a day spent doing very little in particular.
Elkhart Lake
Elkhart Lake in Sheboygan County wraps around its namesake spring-fed lake. The sandy public beach handles swimming, kayaking, and paddleboarding through the warmer months. Road America, a 4-mile road-racing circuit just south of the village, has been the country’s premier natural-terrain road course since opening in 1955 and hosts IndyCar, IMSA sports car, and motorcycle races throughout the season.
Aspira Spa at The Osthoff Resort runs full-service treatments inspired by the surrounding lake and forest. Henschel’s Indian Museum & Trout Farm pairs an unusual Native American artifact collection with a working catch-your-own trout pond on the same property.
Rib Mountain
Rib Mountain rises above the city of Wausau as a 1.7-billion-year-old quartzite ridge, one of the oldest geological features in North America. Rib Mountain State Park covers more than 1,500 acres with 15 miles of hiking trails climbing through quartzite ledges to the summit, where a 60-foot observation tower overlooks the Wisconsin River valley.
Granite Peak Ski Area on the south face of Rib Mountain runs 75 named trails across 200 acres of skiable terrain (the largest ski area in Wisconsin) and operates a high-speed six-pack chairlift for fast access. Winter at the state park transforms the upper trails into snowshoeing and cross-country skiing routes.
Eleven Versions Of Slow
The eleven Wisconsin towns above each hang on a specific anchor. Lake Geneva and Elkhart Lake run on summer lakefront tradition, and Sister Bay adds the Door County version up on Green Bay. Ladysmith and New London hold cultural identities (a lumber-town festival, Irish heritage) that bigger cities long ago shed. Bayfield and Mineral Point built theirs on geography and immigrant history, a Lake Superior archipelago and a Cornish lead-mining boom. Spring Green and Rib Mountain anchor architectural and geological specialties. Lake Hallie and Thiensville cluster around a lake and a river for daily recreation. None of them is in a hurry.
Manuel Franco claims his $768 million Powerball jackpot
Manuel Franco, 24, of West Allis was revealed Tuesday as the winner of the $768.4 million Powerball jackpot.
Mark Hoffman, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The Wisconsin Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at May 29, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Mega Millions numbers from May 29 drawing
19-24-47-59-65, Mega Ball: 07
Check Mega Millions payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Pick 3 numbers from May 29 drawing
Midday: 8-3-0
Evening: 1-6-0
Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Pick 4 numbers from May 29 drawing
Midday: 8-2-0-4
Evening: 3-4-6-6
Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning All or Nothing numbers from May 29 drawing
Midday: 02-06-07-08-09-10-12-14-16-18-22
Evening: 02-05-06-10-11-12-15-16-17-18-19
Check All or Nothing payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Badger 5 numbers from May 29 drawing
15-16-19-20-24
Check Badger 5 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning SuperCash numbers from May 29 drawing
23-24-25-30-33-37, Doubler: N
Check SuperCash payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your lottery prize
- Prizes up to $599: Can be claimed at any Wisconsin Lottery retailer.
- Prizes from $600 to $199,999: Can be claimed in person at a Lottery Office. By mail, send the signed ticket and a completed claim form available on the Wisconsin Lottery claim page to: Prizes, PO Box 777 Madison, WI 53774.
- Prizes of $200,000 or more: Must be claimed in person at the Madison Lottery office. Call the Lottery office prior to your visit: 608-261-4916.
Can Wisconsin lottery winners remain anonymous?
No, according to the Wisconsin Lottery. Due to the state’s open records laws, the lottery must, upon request, release the name and city of the winner. Other information about the winner is released only with the winner’s consent.
When are the Wisconsin Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 9:59 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 10:00 p.m. CT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Super Cash: 9:00 p.m. CT daily.
- Pick 3 (Day): 1:30 p.m. CT daily.
- Pick 3 (Evening): 9:00 p.m. CT daily.
- Pick 4 (Day): 1:30 p.m. CT daily.
- Pick 4 (Evening): 9:00 p.m. CT daily.
- All or Nothing (Day): 1:30 p.m. CT daily.
- All or Nothing (Evening): 9 p.m. CT daily.
- Megabucks: 9:00 p.m. CT on Wednesday and Saturday.
- Badger 5: 9:00 p.m. CT daily.
That lucky feeling: Peek at the past week’s winning numbers.
Feeling lucky? WI man wins $768 million Powerball jackpot **
WI Lottery history: Top 10 Powerball and Mega Million jackpots
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Wisconsin editor. You can send feedback using this form.
APPLETON, Wis. — More than 200 Wisconsin National Guard troops are back home this weekend.
The troops based out of Appleton returned on Friday after a deployment throughout the Middle East for more than a year.
Members of the Wisconsin National Guard’s 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry Regiment were treated to a warm welcome home by family and friends at Appleton Flight Center.
Staff Sgt. Ryan Hayes said seeing his family again after being gone for so long was amazing. He said it was especially emotional reuniting with his daughters and his 3-year-old son.
“It was kind of… honestly, kind of tear-jerking a little bit. I was trying to hold… It was hard to hold it back, you know? It’s hard to watch him grow through a phone, you know?” Hayes said.
Major General Matt Strub, Wisconsin’s adjutant general, said troops’ mission included conducting security operations in nine different countries.
He said they also took part in the largest transfer of enemy prisoners of war in Central Command history.
“How long they serve depends on the individual. But this was just a normal one-year rotation into the Middle East to just provide that security that the U.S. needs in the region. During the time they were gone, Operation Epic Fury kicked off. Their mission changed slightly, but still to provide security for the region,” he said.
Gov. Tony Evers was on hand to welcome the troops back to Wisconsin.
Strub said the celebration on Friday was well-earned and well-deserved.
“When they see the fire cannons, the water cannons, when they see the families with the balloons and signs, it’s truly… The joy swells up. The emotion of being gone wells up. You really just feel like you’ve… You’re welcomed home in a positive way,” he said.
Hayes said he felt blessed to be back home with his family.
“I feel really good to be home, be with my kids, another deployment under my belt. That just puts everything into perspective, like how lucky we are back here in the United States to have what we have and be able to have this,” he said.
This group of soldiers worked as part of the U.S. Central Command Area of Responsibility. They worked alongside NATO partners before wrapping up their deployment.
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