Marathon County Demographics Overview Marathon County is the largest county geographically in Wisconsin with an area of 1,584 square miles. The largest minority group in the county is Southeast Asian. The Asian community has grown dramatically in Marathon county since 1980. From 184 persons in 1980 to 4,800 persons in 1996, Wausau now has the largest per capita population of Southeast Asians in the United States. The growth in poverty has come primarily from families of Asian origin.
Unemployment continues to be disproportionately high in the Southeast Asian community.
It is especially difficult for Asians to find jobs that pay well enough to allow them to support their large families at a level that would place them above the poverty threshold. The average family size for Asians living in Wausau is 7.5 family members. Currently, Marathon County has 1,112 families receiving food stamps. Access to food programs of any kind is an issue in a rural county the size of Marathon County. Farming communities are among the hardest to reach.