By the numbers
Wisconsin’s manufacturing output, while suffering dips in recessions, tracks an upward trend for the past six decades, one at odds with “rust belt” label sometimes attached to the state. Adjusting for inflation, however, shows a manufacturing sector that has only held even for a decade, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
In 1963, the earliest year for which official state-level sector data are available, Wisconsin’s manufacturing sector produced about $4.5 billion in output. By 1997, that nominal output grew to $40.3 billion under the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. Then the federal statistics shifted to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), under which the 1997 output was measured at $38.7 billion.
From 1997 to 2025, the output of the manufacturing sector grew by over 90 percent, from $38.7 billion to $73.8 billion.
Adjusting to real 2025 dollars, however, reveals inflation’s effect. The sector reached its highest point in 2014, when output was equivalent to $77.4 billion in 2025 dollars, and has plateaued since.
The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis is responsible for measuring and reporting key economic figures, including breakdowns of GDP by state and sector. Its 1997 change in classification systems substantially changed the way it defined manufacturing — separating publishing from printing and counting it under a distinct information sector rather than under manufacturing, for example. In these graphs, the Badger Institute used the BEA’s manufacturing-specific measure of inflation.
Wyatt Eichholz is a policy and legislative associate at the Badger Institute.
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