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Projected Decline in Wisconsin's Working-Age Population Means The State Needs to Build Fewer Housing Units

Friday, June 12th, 2026 -- 9:00 AM

(Joe Schulz, Wisconsin Public Radio) A projected decline in Wisconsin’s working-age population means the state needs to build fewer housing units than previously expected, according to a new report.

According to Joe Schulz with the Wisconsin Public Radio, the report from Forward Analytics argues that building just enough homes to match that demographic trend could make it harder for the state to grow its economy.

In 2023, Forward Analytics projected the state needed to build 140,000 housing units by the end of the decade to meet current demand. Now, researchers have revised that number down to around 84,000 housing units.

Forward Analytics is the research arm of the Wisconsin Counties Association. Their new report updated expected housing needs based on revised population projections from the Wisconsin Department of Administration using 2020 Census data.

Research analyst Jacob Anderson, who worked on the report, said the previous estimate was based on the expectation that more people would stay in the state. But he said the new demographic data showed the state’s prime working-age population, those aged 25 to 64, is expected to decline faster than researchers previously believed.

“As a result, we need less housing than we initially thought,” Anderson said. “Not because we’ve built more to become more affordable, but just because we project that there’ll be less people demanding housing.”

Wisconsin’s prime working age population is expected to decline by around 200,000 between 2020 and 2030, according to the report. That age group already declined by more than 25,000 from 2020 through 2024, and the trend is expected to accelerate through the end of the decade as more baby boomers age out of the workforce, the report said.

While those shifts helped reduce Wisconsin’s projected housing need, Anderson said that’s not actually a good thing. “It’s signaling greater demographic pressures and challenges,” he said.

To reverse those trends, he said, Wisconsin may need to build more housing than current population projections suggest, both to retain younger residents and attract new ones.

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