Milwaukee is the largest city in the state of Wisconsin, United States and the county of Milwaukee. The city's population is 592,765 (2005 estimate) with an estimated total of 1,709,926 in the Milwaukee metropolitan area (2005). The city of Milwaukee is the 22nd largest city in the United States. The city is located in the southeastern portion of the state on the western shore of Lake Michigan.
1850 - 20,0611860 - 45,2461870 - 71,4401880 - 115,5871890 - 204,4681900 - 285,3151910 - 373,8571920 - 457,1471930 - 578,2491940 - 587,4721950 - 637,3921960 - 741,3241970 - 717,0991980 - 636,2121990 - 628,0882000 - 596,9742005 - 592,765
Although most people associate Milwaukee with beer, today companies like Miller Brewing employ less than one percent of the city's workers. Milwaukee's reputation as a blue collar town is more accurate, however, with 22 percent of the workforce involved in manufacturing -- second only to San Jose, CA and far higher than the national average of 16.5%. Service and managerial jobs are the fastest growing segments of the Milwaukee economy, and healthcare makes up 27% of all service jobs in the city.
Milwaukee is headquarters to six Fortune 1000 manufacturers and six Fortune 1000 service companies. Among these are Briggs & Stratton, Harley-Davidson, Johnson Controls, Manpower Inc., Marshall & Ilsley, Northwestern Mutual, Rockwell Automation, Roundy's Supermarkets, Metavante, Kohl's, and Wisconsin Energy. The Milwaukee area ranked number five in the nation when measuring the number of Fortune 500 companies as a share of the population, just behind the number four Minneapolis-St. Paul region. Milwaukee also has a large number of financial service firms, particularly those specializing in mutual funds and transaction processing systems, and a disproportionate number of publishing and printing companies.
The Milwaukee area was originally inhabited by the Fox, Mascouten, Potawatomi, and Winnebago Indian tribes. Milwaukee received its name from the Indian word Millioke which means "The Good Land", or "gathering place by the water." French missionaries and traders passed through the area in the late 1600s and 1700s.
In 1818, Frenchman Solomon Juneau settled in the area. Juneau bought out his father-in-law's trading business, and in 1833 he founded a town on the east side of the Milwaukee River. In 1846, Juneau's town combined with two neighboring rival towns to incorporate as the City of Milwaukee: Kilbourntown to the west, which was founded by Byron Kilbourn, and Walker's Point to the south, founded by George H. Walker. Juneau was Milwaukee's first mayor. German immigrants helped increase the city's population during the 1840s and the following decades. Milwaukee still today has a large German-American population. The liberal tradition of these peoples led to decades of socialist government in Milwaukee during the twentieth century.
From the late 19th century until the 1950s, Milwaukee, like many northern industrial cities, saw tremendous growth from immigrants from Germany, Hungary, Poland and other central European nations, as well as the northward migration of African-Americans from southern U.S. states. This helped make Milwaukee one of the 15 largest cities in the nation, and by the mid-1960s, its population reached nearly 750,000. Starting in the late 1960s, however, like many cities in the Great Lakes "rust belt," Milwaukee saw its population start to decline due to various factors, ranging from the loss of blue collar jobs to the phenomenon of "white flight." However, in recent years, the city began to make strides in improving its economy, neighborhoods, and image, resulting in the revitalization of neighborhoods such as the Third Ward, east side,and more recently, Bay View, along with attracting new businesses to its downtown area. While the city still faces a shrinking population, it continues to make plans for increasing its future revitalization through various projects.
Source:
Milwaukee-USA.com
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