Wisconsin County Map

How Many Counties Are in Wisconsin?

Wisconsin has 72 counties. The first two were Brown County in the northeast and Crawford County in the southwest, both created in 1818 when the future state fell under Michigan Territory. Iowa County followed in 1829, formed from the portion of Crawford south of the Wisconsin River, and Milwaukee County in 1834 from the southern part of Brown. By statehood in 1848 the count stood at 28. Menominee, established in 1959 and taking effect in 1961, is the seventy-second and last county created.

Which Wisconsin County Covers the Most Land?

Marathon County holds the most land at 1,545 square miles, with Bayfield County second at 1,478. Door County is the largest by total area at roughly 2,370 square miles, though only 482 square miles of that is land, because the Census Bureau assigns it a wide expanse of Lake Michigan and Green Bay water. About 80 percent of Door County's total area is water. Bayfield ranks high on total area for the same reason, with 564 square miles of Lake Superior added to its land.

Wisconsin's Smallest County by Land Area

Pepin County, on the Mississippi River in the west, covers 232 square miles of land, the least in the state. Ozaukee County is second at about 233 square miles, a difference of roughly one square mile, and it is frequently miscited as the smallest because it appears small on land-only maps while holding a large Lake Michigan water allotment. Menominee County is the second smallest by total area at 365 square miles, which is a different ranking again. The median Wisconsin county covers about 753 square miles of land.

Why Does Menominee County Exist?

Menominee County was authorized in 1959 when Governor Gaylord Nelson signed the enabling law, and it took effect when federal termination of the Menominee reservation's status occurred on April 30, 1961. It was carved from seven townships in northeastern Shawano County and three western townships of Oconto County. The Menominee Restoration Act of 1973 restored federal recognition, and the county today is essentially coterminous with the reservation. Its seat is Keshena, its 2025 estimated population is 4,199, and 85.6 percent of residents identified as American Indian or Alaska Native at the 2020 census.

How Many People Live in Milwaukee County?

Milwaukee County had an estimated 924,216 residents as of July 1, 2025, well ahead of every other county and the only one above 900,000. Dane County, which contains Madison, ranks second. Milwaukee is also the most densely settled county in the state. Menominee County is the least populous at 4,199, which makes the gap between first and last roughly 220 to one. Milwaukee County lost 107 residents between 2024 and 2025 and has declined by about 15,280 since the 2020 census, while Dane added 4,050 in the same single year.

Where Is Door County and What Is It Known For?

Door County occupies the peninsula separating Green Bay from the main body of Lake Michigan, and its seat is Sturgeon Bay. It has roughly 300 miles of shoreline and eleven lighthouses, among the highest concentrations of any county in the United States. Washington Island and Rock Island lie at its northern end, reached by ferry across the Porte des Morts strait that gives the county its name. The peninsula rests on Silurian dolomite forming part of the Niagara Escarpment, a documented groundwater contamination concern because water moves so readily through the fractured rock.

Which County Is Milwaukee, Madison, or Appleton In?

Milwaukee is the seat of Milwaukee County, Madison the seat of Dane County, and Appleton crosses three county lines, with Outagamie holding the seat and portions extending into Calumet and Winnebago. Green Bay is the seat of Brown County. Eau Claire spans two counties, Eau Claire and Chippewa. Kenosha and Racine are each the seat of the county sharing their name, while Oshkosh is the seat of Winnebago County. Wausau is the seat of Marathon County and Sturgeon Bay the seat of Door County.

Where Do Wisconsin County Names Come From?

A large share of Wisconsin county names come from Algonquian and Siouan languages, though the translations offered for them are often contested. Manitowoc derives from an Ojibwe word for spirits, Sheboygan from a term for the passage or waterway between lakes, and Waukesha from a Potawatomi word for fox applied to winding rivers. Winnebago, Outagamie, Shawano, Chippewa, Sauk, Ozaukee, Kenosha, Oconto, Waupaca, and Kewaunee all trace to Indigenous sources. Five counties were renamed while keeping identical borders, so Bad Axe became Vernon in 1862, Dallas became Barron in 1869, La Pointe became Bayfield in 1866, New County became Langlade in 1880, and Gates became Rusk in 1905.

What Is the Driftless Area and Which Counties Does It Cover?

The Driftless Area is the unglaciated region of southwestern Wisconsin and adjacent parts of Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois, covering about 24,103 square miles across all or part of 57 counties. The last continental glacier bypassed it, so it never received glacial drift and kept its deep valleys and steep bluffs instead of being flattened. The Wisconsin core includes Crawford, Vernon, Richland, Grant, Iowa, Lafayette, La Crosse, and Monroe, with the Kickapoo Valley in Crawford and Vernon counties often described as its heart. The state survey's wider mapping extends the region into another seventeen counties.

What Is a Wisconsin County Board of Supervisors?

Every Wisconsin county is governed by a county board of supervisors elected from districts and led by a board chairperson. Counties also elect a sheriff, district attorney, clerk, treasurer, coroner, surveyor, register of deeds, and clerk of circuit court, each to a four-year term, though most counties have replaced the elected coroner with an appointed medical examiner. State law requires any county of 750,000 or more residents to elect a county executive, a threshold Milwaukee County alone meets. Smaller counties may create the office by board resolution or referendum, and many instead use an appointed administrator or administrative coordinator.