Brown County vs Dane County

A side-by-side comparison of Brown County and Dane County: population, income, housing, and more.

Brown County and Dane County are counties in Wisconsin. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Dane County has the higher population (564,777 vs 269,425 in Brown County). Dane County has the higher median household income ($88,108 vs $77,490 in Brown County). Dane County has the higher median home value ($366,100 vs $245,900 in Brown County).

Population, income & housing

	Brown County	Dane County
Population	269,425	564,777
Median age	37.9 yrs	35.6 yrs
Median household income	$77,490	$88,108
Median home value	$245,900	$366,100
Median gross rent	$973	$1,345
Housing units	114,123	254,880
Homeownership rate	64.6%	57.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	32.4%	54.4%
Unemployment rate	2.8%	2.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Brown County	Dane County
Population	261,368 → 269,425 (+3.1%)	536,078 → 564,777 (+5.4%)
Median household income	$62,340 → $77,490 (+24.3%)	$73,893 → $88,108 (+19.2%)
Median home value	$173,900 → $245,900 (+41.4%)	$265,600 → $366,100 (+37.8%)
Median gross rent	$795 → $973 (+22.4%)	$1,083 → $1,345 (+24.2%)

Brown County

Population

261,368269,425

Median household income

$62,340$77,490

Median home value

$173,900$245,900

Median gross rent

$795$973

Dane County

Population

536,078564,777

Median household income

$73,893$88,108

Median home value

$265,600$366,100

Median gross rent

$1,083$1,345

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Brown County	Dane County
Under 5	5.9%	5.2%
5 to 17	17.4%	14.8%
18 to 24	9.2%	13.5%
25 to 34	13.3%	15.4%
35 to 44	13.1%	13.9%
45 to 54	12.0%	11.3%
55 to 64	13.2%	11.2%
65 to 74	9.8%	9.1%
75 and over	6.1%	5.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Brown County	Dane County
White (non-Hispanic)	78.1%	76.7%
Black or African American	2.5%	5.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	1.6%	0.1%
Asian	3.2%	5.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.4%	0.4%
Two or more races	4.2%	4.2%
Hispanic or Latino	10.0%	7.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Brown County	Dane County
No high school diploma	6.7%	3.7%
High school graduate	29.2%	17.4%
Some college or associate's	31.6%	24.4%
Bachelor's degree	22.7%	32.6%
Graduate or professional degree	9.7%	21.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Brown County	Dane County
Drove alone	78.5%	65.2%
Carpooled	7.9%	5.8%
Public transit	0.5%	3.1%
Walked	1.7%	5.2%
Bicycle	0.2%	1.9%
Worked from home	10.4%	17.8%
Other means	0.9%	1.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Brown County	Dane County
1-unit, detached	63.7%	51.0%
1-unit, attached	6.6%	6.6%
2 to 4 units	8.2%	9.1%
5 to 19 units	13.2%	11.6%
20 or more units	7.0%	21.0%
Mobile home & other	1.3%	0.8%

Poverty & households

	Brown County	Dane County
Poverty rate	9.8%	10.5%
Average household size	2.38	2.24
Mean commute (minutes)	19	21
Median year structure built	1980	1985