METROSCOPE
Delaware overview
All Delaware places > New Castle County > Delaware City
An editorial illustration of Delaware City, Delaware
New Castle County · Delaware incorporated municipality

Delaware City, DE

Manufacturing leads a local job base of 1,184 workplace jobs alongside 1,917 residents.

Population
1,917
DPC official estimate
Local jobs
1,184
LODES workplace jobs
Median income
$85,395
ACS 5-year estimate
School locations
0
FirstMap site count
City overview

The forces shaping Delaware City now.

A missing measure is unavailable coverage, not zero or an absence claim.

01
People

Delaware City has a distinct household profile.

73% of occupied homes are owner-occupied in the latest population and housing record.

Owner-occupied: 73%

Source: census acs5 2024 · 2024 ↗.
02
Daily life

Delaware City has its own public library branch.

Delaware City Public Library together cover 13,000 square feet of public library space inside the boundary.

Branches: 1

Source: IMLS Public Libraries Survey (PLS), outlet file, checked 2024.
03
Daily life

Delaware City has a well-stocked restaurants directory.

5 listed restaurants locations appear inside the boundary—directory records, not a ranking or completeness claim.

Restaurants: 5

Source: Overture Maps Foundation, checked 2026-08-19.0.
People

Who lives here—and which households shape demand?

Population uses Delaware's official Population Consortium estimate, which does not carry the ACS survey's sampling error for small places. Households and other figures below remain ACS survey estimates.

Population
1,917

Delaware Population Consortium official estimate

Source: dpc projections 2024 · 2024 ↗
2050 population projection
1,957

Planning projection, not an observed outcome

Source: dpc projections 2024 · 2050 ↗
Households
714
Source: census acs5 2024 · 2024 ↗
Median age
40
Source: census acs5 2024 · 2024 ↗
Median household income
$85,395
Source: census acs5 2024 · 2024 ↗
Bachelor's degree or higher
24%

Among residents age 25 and older. ±16% margin of error.

Source: census acs5 2024 · 2024 ↗
Population composition

Residents by Census category

Each share uses the total Delaware City population as its denominator. Hispanic or Latino may be of any race; the other broad categories are non-Hispanic. Detailed Asian-alone groups use a separate Census race table.

White, non-Hispanic74%
Hispanic or Latino11%
Two or more races, non-Hispanic8%
Black, non-Hispanic8%

Sources: census acs5 2024 · 2024 ↗. Positive detailed Asian estimates are shown in this same composition list; published zeroes are omitted and are not proof of absence. Small differences may be within ACS survey uncertainty.

Source: dpc projections 2024 · 2024 ↗. ACS estimates cover a five-year survey period; margin of error is reported where provided.

Work

What work is located inside Delaware City?

LODES counts jobs by workplace location, not the industries of residents or a named-employer roster. The sector mix can show the shape of the local job base, not dependence on individual companies.

Jobs by sector

Latest LODES workplace-job estimates. Shares use the total local job count. Commuter-flow context (who works here vs. lives here) is intentionally omitted until the Delaware panel can identify scoped destinations without overstating cross-border precision — see real work-destination distances in the Mobility section below.

Manufacturing676
Construction / real estate225
Logistics / industrial121
Hospitality49
Administrative & support37
Finance21

Source: lodes8 wac de 2023 · 2023 ↗.

Housing

What kinds of homes exist—and where is pressure visible?

Housing estimates describe existing conditions. Permit and development records signal reported activity, not starts, completions, or a complete construction census.

Owner-occupied
73%
Source: census acs5 2024 · 2024 ↗
Median owner value
$266,900
Source: census acs5 2024 · 2024 ↗
Vacancy rate
4%
Source: census acs5 2024 · 2024 ↗
Two-bedroom rent benchmark
$1,860
Source: hud fmr 2027 · 2027 ↗
Owner-home values

A Census estimate, not a market price

These estimates cover owner-occupied homes only. They are not listings, sales, appraisals, or an all-homes measure; the final Census band is open-ended at $2M+.

Median estimate$266,900
Middle half of homes$171,000–$349,400Lower to upper quartile of owner estimates
Luxury-home concentration0%Estimated at $2M+
Under $500k94%
$500–749k3%
$750–999k3%
$1–1.49M0%
$1.5–1.99M0%
$2M+0%

Source: census acs5 2024 · 2024 ↗.

Existing housing mix

Detached homes65%
Attached homes13%
Small multifamily6%
5+ unit multifamily2%
Mobility

What is the scheduled supply—and how do workers usually commute?

GTFS measures scheduled service at stops within the boundary. It is not ridership, reliability, or a guarantee that a particular trip is practical. ACS commute modes are a separate survey estimate.

Scheduled stops
0
Source: gtfs dart first state|gtfs septa bus|gtfs septa rail · 2026 ↗
Weekday departures
0
Source: gtfs dart first state|gtfs septa bus|gtfs septa rail · 2026 ↗
Drove alone
82%
Source: census acs5 2024 · 2024 ↗
Worked from home
12%
Source: census acs5 2024 · 2024 ↗
Typical drive times

About how long does it take to get where people go?

Work destinations are selected from observed resident job flows. These are broad, reviewed planning ranges from representative parts of Delaware City—not live-traffic or door-to-door predictions.

Wilmington

Wilmington is a LODES-selected resident workplace destination for Delaware City, representing 20% of matched resident jobs from this place.

25–50 minWeekday morning peak
Details

Highway-dominant corridor: distance converted with a reviewed 1.25x circuity factor and an assumed 45 km/h peak-effective / 70 km/h off-peak effective speed, then widened and rounded to a broad band. The morning inbound peak is shown; the evening outbound return is assumed to fall within the same broad band.

Delaware City

Delaware City is a LODES-selected resident workplace destination for Delaware City, representing 11% of matched resident jobs from this place.

5–20 minWeekday morning peak
Details

Local arterial-dominant corridor: distance converted with a reviewed 1.40x circuity factor and an assumed 28 km/h peak-effective / 42 km/h off-peak effective speed, then widened and rounded to a broad band. The morning inbound peak is shown; the evening outbound return is assumed to fall within the same broad band.

Newark

Newark is a LODES-selected resident workplace destination for Delaware City, representing 10% of matched resident jobs from this place.

20–50 minWeekday morning peak
Details

Highway-dominant corridor: distance converted with a reviewed 1.25x circuity factor and an assumed 45 km/h peak-effective / 70 km/h off-peak effective speed, then widened and rounded to a broad band. The morning inbound peak is shown; the evening outbound return is assumed to fall within the same broad band.

New Castle

New Castle is a LODES-selected resident workplace destination for Delaware City, representing 10% of matched resident jobs from this place.

25–50 minWeekday morning peak
Details

Local arterial-dominant corridor: distance converted with a reviewed 1.40x circuity factor and an assumed 28 km/h peak-effective / 42 km/h off-peak effective speed, then widened and rounded to a broad band. The morning inbound peak is shown; the evening outbound return is assumed to fall within the same broad band.

Method, review date, and sources

Planning estimate; actual time varies by departure time, route, traffic, weather, incidents, and closures.

Estimates are derived from reviewed origin/destination coordinates using the same documented distance-to-time heuristic as the Washington pilot (circuity factor and assumed effective speed by corridor type and period), then deliberately widened and rounded to a broad band. No live routing or traffic API was called. Two methodology differences from the Washington pilot, both disclosed: each place uses a single Census TIGER internal point as its representative origin rather than three job-weighted directional sample origins, and work destinations are selected from Delaware's own place-to-place LODES flow file rather than block-level clustering—out-of-state commute flows (aggregated to the Pennsylvania/Maryland/New Jersey state level in that source) are excluded because a state has no single routable coordinate.

Estimates reviewed 2026-09-12. Starting point: Delaware City representative point.

City boundary and regional context● nearby places
Daily life

Institutions and listed activity inside the boundary.

These are bounded inventories, not measures of access, enrollment, foot traffic, or the full local business economy. People routinely use services across place lines.

Local field guide

Places for everyday needs in Delaware City

Care, errands, food, fitness, and personal services gathered into one browsable directory.

Hospitals0 in cityFind nearby
Explore all hospitals near Delaware CityOpen
Restaurants5 listedView all
Dolly Spanker'sMapKathy's Crab HouseMapLa Matesina Pizza PastaMapSunday's Cafe 64MapWiso CrabsMapExplore all restaurants in Maps
Salons and barbers5 listedView all
Crown Jul'sMapHONEY salon llcMapThe RiverviewMapSplit Endz Hair Studio, LLCMapTEASE SalonMapExplore all salons and barbers in Maps

Counts reflect current directory records associated with the city, not a complete business census or a measure of access. Large categories show a sample.

Sources: U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), snapshot 2026-08-13; Overture Maps Foundation, release 2026-08-19.0; U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (NPPES NPI Registry), snapshot 2026-09-12.

Public library footprint

Delaware City Public Library

Floor area shows the scale of the physical branches. The national IMLS outlet file does not report circulation at the branch level, so checkouts are not shown here; people routinely use libraries across city lines.

Branch floor area
13,000 sq ft

All matched branches must report floor area before a city total is shown.

Delaware City Public LibraryDelaware City Public Library
250 Fifth Street, Delaware City DE 1970613,000 sq ft~37.6 avg. hours/week

Source: IMLS Public Libraries Survey (PLS), outlet file, 2024. Branches are matched by the outlet's reported coordinate falling inside the place boundary; bookmobiles and books-by-mail-only service are excluded because they have no fixed location.

The schools inside Delaware City.

Institution counts and enrollment remain separate. A school can serve students from outside the place, and residents may attend a school across the boundary or elsewhere in their district.

Public elementary0

None in the current FirstMap place-boundary match.

Public middle0

None in the current FirstMap place-boundary match.

Public high0

None in the current FirstMap place-boundary match.

Public-school names and grade levels come from Delaware Department of Education / Delaware FirstMap ↗.

Civic

Who represents Delaware City today?

State House and Senate districts are drawn independently of municipal boundaries, so a place can span more than one district per chamber.

Incorporated
1851
Source: Wikipedia, "List of municipalities in Delaware," citing Delaware Public Archives Town and City Histories

State legislature

Senate District 12: Nicole Poore (D)Official page ↗
House District 17: Melissa Minor-Brown (D)Official page ↗

Reflects the current Delaware FirstMap district snapshot; a vacancy, resignation, or mid-term appointment can lag this by a few weeks.

Source: Delaware General Assembly / City of Wilmington, via Delaware FirstMap, checked 2026-09-12.

Delaware City's own government

Delaware has no single statewide directory of every town's mayor, council, and meeting schedule the way Washington's MRSC covers all 82 cities there, so Metroscope does not yet show a roster for Delaware City. Its official town site is the current-best source for that.

Delaware City's official site ↗Delaware municipal elections ↗

Delaware runs one statewide emergency notification system, not a separate one per place; cell phones aren't enrolled automatically. Sign up for Delaware emergency alerts (DEMA) ↗