New Castle County, DE

County Profile

577,961 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for New Castle County, DE.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

63out of 100
Area Score
Top 46% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity866th of 1,255 counties measured46
Growth681st of 1,226 counties measured47
Housing affordability795th of 1,255 counties measured88
ClimateTop 40% of 1,254 counties measured71
Physical resilienceTop 48% of 1,255 counties measured63
AccessTop 40% of 1,255 counties measured86
Economic stabilityTop 17% of 1,255 counties measured83
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.8% and median household income $91,166, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

1,354 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 6% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.

Rent takes 19% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.9 times that income.

At a glance

Population
577,961
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$91,166
Top 9% nationally
Density
1,356/sq mi
426.3 sq mi of land
Median age
39.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
New Castle County
Delaware
Metro area
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD
Nearest major airport
PHL
30 mi · Philadelphia Intl
Median home value
$352,200
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.8% is lower than 28% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 2.3% over the past year, to 286,524 employed residents.

40% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 91% of measured US locations.

Household income is higher than at least 91% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$1,765$91,166Top 9%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$774$47,777Top 9%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate10.1%Bottom 25%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute27.1 minTop 40%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher39.7%Top 9%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment286,524Top 9%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-2.4%Bottom 18%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.3%Bottom 14%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force301,116Top 9%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation65.7%Top 15%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.1%Bottom 38%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate4.8%Top 28%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.33.3
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.8% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202491k78k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $91,166 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides158,280$29,800
Registered Nurses73,790$101,180
Fast Food and Counter Workers69,080$32,220
General and Operations Managers68,730$121,630
Retail Salespersons63,990$34,810
Cashiers54,100$33,050

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

30% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 42% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.1 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
129
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.1
across all schools here
Math proficiency
29.5%
2019-20 school year
Reading proficiency
41.8%
2019-20 school year
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Newark Charter School · charterNewark Charter School3,10916.467%71%
Odyssey Charter School · charterOdyssey Charter School2,28612.737%49%
Penn (William) High SchoolColonial School District2,06917.7
Delcastle Technical High SchoolNew Castle County Vocational-Technical School District1,60513.6
ASPIRA Delaware · charterLas Americas Aspira Academy1,47117.317%28%
Christiana High SchoolChristina School District1,42517.065%85%
MOT Charter School · charterMOT Charter School1,40717.458%60%
Appoquinimink High SchoolAppoquinimink School District1,35715.2
Odessa High SchoolAppoquinimink School District1,25415.1
Middletown High SchoolAppoquinimink School District1,23115.4
St. Georges Technical High SchoolNew Castle County Vocational-Technical School District1,19815.0
Conrad Schools of ScienceRed Clay Consolidated School District1,16418.257%67%

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Delaware’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,448 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.9 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
19.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.9×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,448
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$352,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.86Top 22%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate69.0%Bottom 26%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±136236,079Top 4%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$22$1,448Top 9%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$3,776$352,200Top 13%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.1%Top 28%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate5.0%Bottom 5%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
47/ 100
Ranks 681 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing — 2 consecutive years, measured from 2020 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has grown 3% since 2020, reaching 588,093 in 2024.

Population is still rising, but more slowly than in the preceding year.

At 2.3 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
1,354
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.3
Bottom 41% nationally
Year over year
−6%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
20.1%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024588k571k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
2020202120222023202420252k1k
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−27%).

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 87°F and January a low of 26°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 45.3 inches, including 20.2 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 43, in the Good band, and about 4 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station WILMINGTON NEW CASTLE CO AP, 7.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.7"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index67.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation45.3"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall20.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low26°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high87°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10042024 calendar year
Median air quality index43.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing44°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
43
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
67
90th percentile index
Days above 100
4
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

63 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, earthquake and hurricane.

Winter weatherModerate
Inland floodingModerate
EarthquakeModerate
HurricaneModerate
Strong windModerate
DroughtModerate
Coastal floodingModerate
LandslideModerate

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, cold wave, ice storm, tornado, lightning, wildfire, hail.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

New Castle County records 5.7 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 10.9 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 29.2 per 100,000 residents in New Castle County.

Homicide
5.7
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
10.9
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
29.2
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
10.7
per 100,000 residents

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for New Castle County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around New Castle County rather than New Castle County itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 30 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Philadelphia IntlPHL30 mi12,000 ft
Atlantic City IntlACY57 mi10,001 ft
Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood MarshallBWI61 mi10,503 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
63
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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.