City skyline over Lake Monona.
Planning

Data and Mapping

Neighborhood Indicators Project

Neighborhood Indicators Project logo. The logo has purple buildings that turn into a bar graph. The background is a yellow circle.

New data on housing, health, demographics and more were released in 2025 by the Neighborhood Indicators Project (NIP). The NIP provides geographically detailed data for over 50 variables within seven topic areas. It is supported by city, county, state and federal data sources.

The NIP is a partnership between the City and the UW-Madison Applied Population Lab. The project aims to track dozens of quality-of-life metrics over time. Data is published every two years to provide a better understanding of trends across Madison. It has been a useful tool for community-based organizations, non-profits and other public and private entities. It can help them to identify areas of need and opportunities for support.

The updated data included several new metrics:

  • Median rent
  • Areas of limited English proficiency
  • Alternative modes of transportation to work

This latest edition of NIP allows users to view trends over time, following the switch to census geographies in 2023.

In addition, Planning Division staff created a data dashboard that summarizes the NIP data for the 12 Area Plan geographies.
 

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