Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin, USA

Madison is the capital of Wisconsin and the county seat and principal city of Dane County, situated in south-central Wisconsin roughly 77 miles west of Milwaukee. The city’s defining geographic feature is its narrow central isthmus between Lake Mendota to the north and Lake Monona to the south, where the Wisconsin State Capitol anchors downtown; the broader urban area extends around Lakes Wingra and Waubesa and along the interconnected Yahara River lake system. Madison developed outward from the isthmus into a mixture of dense central neighborhoods, university and government districts, suburban residential areas, commercial corridors and surrounding agricultural landscapes. The University of Wisconsin–Madison occupies much of the western side of the isthmus along Lake Mendota, while the city serves as the governmental, educational, medical and economic center of the Madison metropolitan region. Madison recorded 269,840 residents in the 2020 census, making it Wisconsin’s second-largest city, and its irregular municipal boundary surrounds or adjoins several separately incorporated communities, including Shorewood Hills, Maple Bluff and Monona.