2025 Milwaukee Community Health Assessment released; 5 issues emerge

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Milwaukee Health Department

MILWAUKEE - The Milwaukee Health Department (MHD) released on Wednesday, Jan. 14, its 2025 Community Health Assessment (CHA). A news release says it is the city’s most comprehensive snapshot of health and well-being. 

Community Health Assessment

What we know:

Officials say the assessment was built using quantitative data and direct input from more than 3,400 Milwaukee residents.

Based on that input, the news release says five priority health issues emerged in the assessment. They include: 

• Chronic disease
• Maternal and child health
• Mental health
• Substance use
• Violence and injury

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The assessment also found that injury and violence are leading drivers of premature death and disability in Milwaukee and documented disparities in education, housing, infant death rates, and life expectancy following the COVID-19 pandemic.

First assessment since 2022

Dig deeper:

The 2025 CHA is MHD’s first city-specific assessment since 2022. For the first time, MHD completed the state-required CHA on a three-year cycle, rather than the previous five-year schedule, to provide more timely data for public health planning and collaboration.

The findings will help guide MHD’s work and inform its Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP), which is executed through MKE Elevate, a community-driven partnership focused on improving health outcomes across Milwaukee. The CHA also serves as a shared reference for collaboration among City departments, health care providers, community organizations, policymakers, and residents.

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To help make the findings more accessible, MHD has also published a companion blog post that walks readers through the purpose of the CHA, how it was developed, how it can be used, and what the data reveals about health in Milwaukee today.