Madison 2026The independent atlas report on Madison, United States.

Madison in 200 numbers. Read this before you read anything else.

A Humid continental city of 280,000, year round minus 10 to 27 degree range and 2,380 sunshine hours, the city profile in one stat grid.

Madison scored 7.8 on the everycity index, placing it in the leading band of the global cohort of 5,000 cities. A single person spends $2,680 a month here including rent, groceries, transport and utilities. A working couple spends $4,040. Internet runs at a median 288 Mbps on residential fiber per OOKLA Speedtest readings from April 2026. The average reported salary, blended across sectors, is $5,840 a month. Safety reads 8.0 on a 0 to 10 scale, with the night safety subindex at 7.2, the female solo subindex at 7.6, and the family subindex at 8.4. The metro area holds 280,000 people and sits at 43.073051 degrees north, 89.40123 degrees west. The summer high lands at 27 Celsius, the winter low at minus 10 Celsius. The city averages 2,380 sunshine hours a year.

Compared with peer cities, Madison sits within the regional cohort on monthly outlay. For broader context, the Americas continent page ranks the regional top 25 cities. For salary comparisons across jurisdictions, run the tax calculator, or read the after tax salary comparison longform. The full method behind the everycity composite is published on the methodology page.

Risk, by the subindex.

No moral panic, no rose tint. Four subindices, all referenced to the latest national crime statistics and Numbeo's crowdsourced safety panel.

Madison's overall safety score lands at 8.0, which places it in the workable band on the everycity index. The female solo subindex reads 7.6 and the night walk subindex reads 7.2, both of which capture the variance between daytime and after dark experience. Family safety, weighted for primary school commute risk, sits at 8.4. Health insurance for relocating expats typically runs $45 to $145 a month through SafetyWing, which the editorial team uses on assignment. For broader context the global safest cities ranking places Madison alongside its regional peers in the cohort table.

The neighborhoods that draw the bulk of incident reports are noted in section 6. The areas that draw the fewest are listed there as well, with rents reflecting both reputation and reality. A foreigner walking with a phone in hand on a main avenue at 1 a.m. should not assume the safest neighborhood numbers apply to that scenario; the 7.2 night subindex is the figure that matters. Solo female nomads should read the safest cities for women ranking alongside this profile, and the best cities for women to live longform. Families should review the safest cities for families ranking for the regional cohort.

Who pays, and how much.

Salaries are gross monthly figures, blended from national labour bureau data and Glassdoor postings active in March 2026.

Largest employers in metro Madison

1. University of Wisconsin Madison UW Madison (the structural single largest employer in the city with 24,000 staff and 50,000 students on the historic 1848 founded UW Madison main campus, ranked 13th among US public universities by US News in 2025 and the structural single largest research expenditure in Wisconsin at 1.7 billion USD a year)
2. UW Health and University Hospital (the structural Wisconsin academic medical center with 9,400 staff at the historic 1924 founded University Hospital on the Highland Avenue site, the structural Wisconsin single largest hospital and the regional Level I trauma center)
3. Epic Systems Corporation (the structural single largest US private health software company on the Verona campus 14 kilometers south of Madison, founded 1979 by Judith Faulkner, the structural single largest US electronic health record EHR vendor serving 305 million US patient records with 13,800 staff)
4. American Family Insurance AmFam (the historic 1927 founded mutual insurance company headquartered on the East Madison campus, the structural Fortune 500 insurance company with 12,800 system wide staff)
5. Wisconsin State Government and the Wisconsin Capitol (the structural single largest state government employer with 35,000 staff under Governor Tony Evers)
6. Exact Sciences Corporation (the structural Madison cancer diagnostics company on the Eastpark Boulevard campus, the historic 2009 founded Cologuard non invasive colorectal cancer screening anchor with 6,400 staff)
7. City of Madison and Dane County (the structural municipal and county employer)
8. Promega Corporation and the structural Madison biotechnology cluster (the historic 1978 founded molecular biology reagents company)

The blended average salary in Madison runs $5,840 a month, gross of tax. A senior software developer earns $8,800 on local payroll, while a senior financial analyst commands $7,900. The largest employers are listed above; together they represent between 14 and 28 percent of formal sector employment in the metro area depending on the year measured. Expats moving regular income across borders typically use Wise at the daily mid market rate, which removes the 1.4 to 3.2 percent retail spread that local banks charge.

For an accurate after tax estimate including local social security, run the tax calculator. For a market wide salary view, the highest salary cities ranking and the highest paying cities after tax ranking place Madison in the relevant cohort. The lowest tax cities ranking covers the relative position on tax. For the cohort of cities offering strong tech salaries the tech jobs ranking is the right starting point.

Seven quarters, one verdict each.

A working map of where to live in Madison in 2026, ordered loosely from highest cost to lowest commute.

Downtown Madison and the Capitol Square is the highest priced and the most likely to deliver the lifestyle a Western expat imagines. State Street and the Mansion Hill Historic District is the value pick at a different price point. Marquette and the Atwood Avenue corridor is the modern family pick for the upper middle class. Vilas and the Vilas Park residential corridor sits in the academic or specialty cohort. The full neighborhood by neighborhood walk through, with photos, is in the Madison neighborhoods longform, scheduled to publish in Q3 2026.

Long term rental supply in Madison is concentrated in the four to seven year old apartment stock; older buildings often lack reliable elevators or, in some districts, reliable hot water during the coldest months. Furnished one bedroom listings turn over in a median 9 days at the city center price point and 14 days in the outer ring per the local portals indexed by the editorial property platform guide. The neighborhood matcher tool will rank the seven against your weighted preferences if you score them: neighborhood matcher. For relocating families with school age children, the family friendly cities ranking is the next read in the sequence.

For the kids, and the postgrads.

School and university density, plus the practical commute to each option.

International and bilingual schools

• Edgewood High School of the Sacred Heart (the historic 1881 founded Catholic Dominican Sisters K through 12, the structural single most distinguished Madison private secondary)
• Madison Country Day School (the structural private IB World School K through 12 on the Waunakee Madison border)
• Eagle School of Madison (the structural gifted and talented private K through 12)
• Madison West High School (the historic 1930 founded structural single most distinguished Madison public secondary in the Madison Metropolitan School District MMSD)
• Madison East High School and Madison Memorial High School (the structural Madison public secondaries serving the eastern and western Madison bands)
• Middleton High School (the structural Middleton Cross Plains School District public secondary, the structural single most distinguished Dane County public secondary by Wisconsin DPI results)
• Sun Prairie East and Sun Prairie West High Schools (the structural Sun Prairie commuter band public secondaries)

Universities

• University of Wisconsin Madison UW Madison (the structural flagship University of Wisconsin System campus, the historic 1848 founded land grant university with 50,000 students; ranked 13th among US public universities by US News in 2025, structural strengths in engineering, computer science, biological sciences, agricultural sciences, and the College of Letters and Science)
• Madison College and the Wisconsin Technical College System (the structural Madison technical college with 32,000 students)
• Edgewood College (the historic 1927 founded Catholic Dominican Sisters private college on the Edgewood Avenue site, the structural Madison Catholic liberal arts college)
• UW Madison Wisconsin School of Business (the structural top 30 US public business school)
• UW Madison Law School (the structural top 30 US law school)

Relocating families in Madison typically pick from the school cluster listed above. Tuition for relocating expatriate families typically runs $2,800 a year at the lower priced bilingual options and $7,400 a year at the international baccalaureate flagships. Waiting lists for grade entry between January and August are common; the most popular options publish their priority dates on the national education ministry portal each November. The combined family safety subindex of 8.4 on the everycity index should be read alongside the school commute when ranking neighborhoods.

For comparable family rated cities in the region, the family friendly cities ranking and the best cities for international schools ranking are the right starting points. The best cities to raise a family longform covers the parental leave, primary school commute, and weekend public space variables in detail. For local pediatric specialists, the editorial guide on international health insurance lists the in network hospitals near each Madison school cluster. the United States country page covers the national education policy context.

What makes the city itself.

Food signatures, nightlife rating, and the cultural through line that separates Madison from its regional neighbors.

The food signatures of Madison include the structural Wisconsin Madison Dairyland culinary tradition (the historic Wisconsin cheese tradition, the structural single largest US cheese production state, the historic 1939 founded Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association anchor with the structural Wisconsin specialty cheese inventory of cheddar, colby, brick, and the historic Limburger), the Dane County Farmers Market on the Capitol Square (the structural single largest US producer only farmers market with 300 weekly vendors operating Saturdays from late April through early November, founded 1972), the post 2010 Madison craft brewery cluster (the historic 1985 founded Capital Brewery, the Karben4 Brewing, the Working Draft Beer Company, the Vintage Brewing, and the One Barrel Brewing), the historic Madison Hmong American culinary concentration from the post 1975 Vietnam War Hmong refugee resettlement (the structural single largest US Hmong American population per capita with the Hmong Farmers Market on the East Washington Avenue), the structural Madison cheese curds tradition, and the post 1900 Wisconsin Friday Night Fish Fry tradition. The high points of the dining year run through June through September, when restaurant temperatures sit at the comfortable end of the range and the produce calendar peaks. For longer reads on the cuisine, the best food cities ranking and the Michelin cities ranking place Madison in the relevant cohort regionally. Nightlife sits at a 7.2 rating on the everycity scale. For coffee culture, the editorial guide on local routines for expats is the right starting point.

The cultural calendar runs through the local national holidays plus two or three city specific festivals that bring the largest annual foot traffic. The United States cultural and creative industries policy is reviewed in detail on the United States country page, and the continent page covers the broader pattern across the region. For evening life specifically, the best nightlife cities ranking includes the Madison cohort, and the cities for music ranking covers live venue density. Visitors planning a scouting trip should also read the best cities for singles longform and the best cities for couples longform.

Keep going.