(The Center Square) – Milwaukee’s economic attainment against 11 peer cities but ranked last in venture capital investment and low in business creation, according to a new report from Wisconsin Policy Forum.
The data compares Milwaukee with Austin, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Indianapolis,
Kansas City, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Oklahoma City, Pittsburgh and Portland.
Milwaukee fared well in comparisons of educational attainment of its workforce, its concentration of knowledge workers, including scientists and engineers and its recent growth in household income.
“Available to all as an online interactive at the Forum’s website, it is meant to help the region’s leaders identify its economic strengths and weaknesses, and set priorities for improvement,” the group said.
More than 40% of adults in the Milwaukee metro area had a bachelor’s or advanced degree in 2023, higher than the U.S. average. The area also had a higher concentration of scientists and engineers than all but two of the comparison cities.
Milwaukee’s inflation-adjusted median household income of $77,006 in 2023 was just below the national median of $77,719.
Of the nearly $313 million in venture capital funding between 2021 and 2023 that went to Milwaukee startups, less than 20% went to companies with at least one female founder.
Milwaukee also slid in productivity as measure by gross domestic product of all finished goods coming from the region.
“The region’s productivity slid, and in 2022 it ranked above only the Oklahoma City metro on this indicator,” the report said. “Additionally, metro Milwaukee’s GDP increased at the slowest pace among the comparison metros between 2012 and 2022.”
