The largest county in Wisconsin

There are two right answers. By land area it is Marathon County; by population it is Milwaukee County. Which one you want depends on what you meant by largest.

Largest by land area

Marathon County

1,545 sq mi

2.9% of Wisconsin's land

Largest by population

Milwaukee County

924,216 people

15.5% of Wisconsin's population

Sources: US Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program, Vintage 2025 Population Estimates, released 26 March 2026; US Census Bureau, Gazetteer Files, 2025 Gazetteer Files, released 10 September 2025. Retrieved 30 August 2026.

By land area

The ten largest counties of Wisconsin by land area. Land area excludes inland and coastal water.
RankNameLand areaPopulation
1Marathon County1,545 sq mi139,432
2Bayfield County1,478 sq mi16,787
3Marinette County1,399 sq mi42,574
4Douglas County1,304 sq mi43,990
5Sawyer County1,258 sq mi18,846
6Price County1,254 sq mi13,988
7Clark County1,210 sq mi35,052
8Dane County1,196 sq mi590,375
9Grant County1,148 sq mi52,446
10Oneida County1,114 sq mi38,131

By population

The ten most populous counties of Wisconsin, from the Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 estimates.
RankNamePopulationDensity
1Milwaukee County924,2163,828 per sq mi
2Dane County590,375493 per sq mi
3Waukesha County417,210759 per sq mi
4Brown County275,803520 per sq mi
5Racine County198,919598 per sq mi
6Outagamie County195,894307 per sq mi
7Winnebago County174,218401 per sq mi
8Kenosha County168,448620 per sq mi
9Rock County166,472232 per sq mi
10Marathon County139,43290.2 per sq mi

And the smallest

Smallest by land area

Pepin County

232 sq mi

Least populous

Menominee County

4,199 people

More on Wisconsin

Rebuilt from source data 30 August 2026. How these figures are produced.