During the past year, policymakers in Greater Milwaukee have debated several major public investments that have been touted as crucial to enhancing the region’s image as an attractive and up-and-coming metro area. In each of these debates – ranging from a downtown streetcar, to a new basketball arena, to the need for repairs and improvements to premier cultural institutions – supporters have cited the value of these projects in efforts to attract and retain talent, particularly from the “millennial generation.”
But what do we really know about Greater Milwaukee millennials and how they define the ingredients of an attractive metro region? More specifically, how do entertainment, transportation, and quality-of-life amenities measure up in the spectrum of factors considered by young adults when determining where they want to live and work?
To shed light on those questions, the Public Policy Forum teamed up with The Dieringer Research Group to design a survey of Metro Milwaukee millennials. Responses to our online survey – conducted between mid-October and early November – were received from 486 individuals between the ages of 18 and 34 in the four-county (Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Washington) metro area. The sampling plan was designed to achieve consistency with the population of the four counties by geography, gender, age, and ethnicity.
Research funded by Colliers International.