Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 12,304, laid out in 1810. 2.5 times the nonprofits per person than the typical Indiana town.
Trash day: look up yoursMadison gives you more for your money than most places: a typical home costs about $243K, 3.8 years of the Madison area’s $65K median household income. It grades C+ overall, 405th among Indiana's 585 graded towns. The low prices come with trade-offs. The median household income is $61K, and 15% of residents live below the poverty line. History is its standout character grade: an A+, better than 97% of U.S. towns, with 5 places on the National Register. 39% of working residents work locally in Madison, against 11% in Indiana’s towns and 8% across U.S. towns. No town in Indiana scores higher than Madison on civic life.
Where Madison beats most towns.
Charles L. Shrewsbury HouseCharles L. Shrewsbury House is one of 3 National Historic Landmarks here, the National Register’s top tier.
Census counts: 3,798 in 1840, 12,357 in 2020. The archive holds 17 old photos and papers going back to 1848 and 2 maps from 1986 on.
5 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Indiana), ordered by how far Madison is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Who provides power, water and the rest in Madison, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
Ordered by what stands out in Madison.
Madison draws workers from Madison Township and beyond and is healthier than towns with similar incomes, but it carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Indiana (mostly inland flooding).
7,659 jobs are based in Madison, 1.6 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in.
About one in 3 of Madison’s working residents works in town. The average trip to work in Madison is 19 minutes. The top destinations are Madison Township (9%), Indianapolis (5%) and Hanover (4%).
| Madison | Indiana towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 19 minutes | 24 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $61,000 | $71,000 | $80,000 |
| Work from home | 7.3% | 7.8% | 11% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 99% of Indiana towns, with expected losses of about $186 per resident a year; that rating is what its C+ for hazard risk is built on. 71 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 10 properties have flooded more than once.
Madison’s FEMA risk score is 80 of 100. Since 1978, 71 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Madison.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Lanier Mansion State Historic Site | — | 9 |
| 2. Bicentennial Park | 0.2 mi | 4 |
| 3. Crystal Beach Swimming Pool | — | 2 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Madison has chilly winters and warm summers, with plenty of rain. July afternoons reach 86°, January nights drop to 24° and about 12 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Against the 9,218 U.S. towns with household incomes like Madison’s, it is healthier than 54%, so its C+ isn’t only a matter of income.
Madison beats the Indiana average on 0 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 2. 27% of adults have been diagnosed with depression in Madison.
| Madison | Indiana towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 26% | 23% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 81% | 80% | 79% |
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 13% | 12% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 35% | 37% | 36% |
| What stands out | Madison | IN |
|---|---|---|
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 20% | 15.4% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 9.6% | 8.3% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Children under 18 are 18% of residents (23% statewide); adults 35 to 64 are 42% of residents (37% statewide). 24% of adults 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or more, vs 30% across Indiana. 20% of Madison residents are 65 or older.
| Madison | Indiana towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 18 | 18% | 23% | 22% |
| Median age | 44.4 years | 39.4 years | 40.5 years |
| Aged 65 or older | 20% | 18% | 18% |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 24% | 22% | 29% |
56% women, 44% men
About 78 men for every 100 women (the survey’s margin: ±2.7 points). Across Indiana, 50.4% of residents are women.
| Madison | IN | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 9.2% | 12.4% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 8.9% | 10.9% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 9% | 9.6% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 10.8% | 13.1% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 13.1% | 12.7% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 13% | 12% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 16.1% | 12.5% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 12% | 10.1% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 8% | 6.7% | 7% |
| No diploma | 10% | 9.6% | 10.4% |
| High school | 33.6% | 32.5% | 26% |
| Some college | 21.5% | 19.3% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 11.2% | 9.1% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 12.2% | 18.7% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 11.5% | 10.8% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
The typical Madison home is worth about $243,000, up 4.1% in a year, 6% below the Indiana typical home.
| Madison | Indiana towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 62% | 76% | 73% |
| Median rent | $820 a month | $947 a month | $1,185 a month |
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
1 within 15 miles of the center of Madison
About 4 of every 100 Madison residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Indiana.
Where Madison’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
5 places in Madison on the National Register of Historic Places.
17 notable people were born in Madison.
City in Indiana, United States
Madison is a city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, Indiana, United States, along the Ohio River. As of the 2020 census, Madison had a population of 12,357. Over 55,000 people live within 15 miles (24 km) of downtown Madison. Madison is the largest city along the Ohio River between Louisville and Cincinnati. In 2006, the majority of Madison's downtown area was designated a National Historic Landmark—133 blocks of the downtown area is known as the Madison Historic Landmark District.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
2 towns share a border with Madison.
| Town | IN rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Madison | #405 | C+ | B+ | — | B− | C+ |
| Madison Township | #443 | C+ | B+ | — | B− | C |
| Hanover Township | #350 | B− | B+ | — | B− | B− |
Madison, Madison Township and Hanover Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Madison with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Madison grades C+ overall, better than 45% of U.S. towns and #405 of 585 in Indiana. It grades C+ for health and B− for schools. Jobs & income is its weak spot, with a C−.
Not for the area. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B+.
17 notable people were born here, including Robert Prince and Paul Wolf.
