19963 — Milford, Delaware
Area Profile
Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 19963.
Employment conditions sit below most comparable published ZIP profiles: unemployment is 4.7% and the Opportunity signal places 19963 in the bottom 21%.
In the public schools here, 18% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 17.6 students for every teacher.
Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 232 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 34% on the prior year.
At a glance
Jobs & opportunity
Unemployment of 4.7% is lower than 40% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.
Employment fell 2.6% over the past year, to 115,985 employed residents.
| Metric | Value | Compared with peers | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income ±$5,106 | $71,108 | Bottom 49% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per capita income ±$2,490 | $39,359 | Top 41% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Poverty rate | 11.9% | Top 44% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Average commute | 26.7 min | Bottom 44% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher | 28.9% | Top 37% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Employment | 115,985 | Top 32% | June 2026 |
| Employment change (3 years) | -0.5% | Bottom 41% | June 2026 |
| Employment change (year over year) | -2.6% | Bottom 13% | June 2026 |
| Labor force | 121,674 | Top 32% | June 2026 |
| Labor force participation | 63.1% | Top 40% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Unemployment change (year over year) | 0.4% | Top 34% | June 2026 |
| Unemployment rate | 4.7% | Top 40% | June 2026 |
The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Milford, DE, the city containing this ZIP code.
Schools
How it’s calculated →18% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 30% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.
There are 17.6 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.
| School | District | Students | Per teacher | Math | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milford Senior High School | Milford School District | 1,271 | 19.6 | — | — |
| Milford Central Academy | Milford School District | 1,013 | 18.8 | 22% | 32% |
| Ross (Lulu M.) Elementary School | Milford School District | 693 | 15.4 | 20% | 32% |
| Mispillion Elementary | Milford School District | 568 | 15.4 | 12% | 27% |
| Banneker (Benjamin) Elementary School | Milford School District | 540 | 17.4 | 17% | 26% |
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 $1,254 takes 21% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.
A median home costs 4.5 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.
| Metric | Value | Compared with peers | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home price to income | 4.54 | Top 21% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Homeownership rate | 67.6% | Bottom 25% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Housing units ±679 | 10,933 | Top 15% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median gross rent ±$167 | $1,254 | Top 33% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median home value ±$15,332 | $322,500 | Top 30% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Rent as a share of income | 21.2% | Top 29% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacancy rate | 9.6% | Bottom 44% | 2024 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 →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.
At 18.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.
The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Milford, DE, the city containing this ZIP code.
Weather & climate
7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 88°F and January a low of 29°F.
Normal annual precipitation is 43.9 inches.
Air quality measures a median index of 40, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| 90th percentile air quality index | 55.0 | 2024 calendar year |
| Annual precipitation | 43.9" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low | 29°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high | 88°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months | 7 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Days above AQI 100 | 0 | 2024 calendar year |
| Median air quality index | 40.0 | 2024 calendar year |
| Seasonal temperature swing | 42°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
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
The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are hurricane, coastal flooding and heat wave.
Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, winter weather, inland flooding, drought, lightning, ice storm, wildfire, tornado, hail, landslide.
Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.
Safety
How it’s measured →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.
Sussex County records 3.3 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 9.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.
Drug overdose deaths run at 20.1 per 100,000 residents in Sussex County.
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 Sussex 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 19963 rather than 19963 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
3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 55 miles away.
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atlantic City Intl | ACY | 55 mi | 10,001 ft |
| Philadelphia Intl | PHL | 65 mi | 12,000 ft |
| Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood Marshall | BWI | 72 mi | 10,503 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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Data & methodology
| Used for | Source | Source period | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access | Federal Aviation Administration Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service | NASR current cycle | 28-day NASR cycle |
| Physical risk | Federal Emergency Management Agency National Risk Index | National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0) | Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current) |
| Climate | NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly) | 1991-2020 Normals | Every ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period) |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics | June 2026 | Monthly |
| Demographics | U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program | July 1, 2024 estimate | Annual (vintage released each spring) |
| Development | U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey | 12 months ending July 2026 | Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month |
| Demographics, Housing, Income, Jobs | U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File) | 2024 ACS 5-Year | Annual (5-year estimates released each December) |
| safety | U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics Provisional county-level mortality by intent | April, 2025 to March, 2026 | Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years |
| schools | U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments | 2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school year | Directory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them |
| Climate | U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System Daily Air Quality Index by county | 2024 calendar year | Annually, 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.
19963 vs Milford
How this ZIP area compares with Milford as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.
Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.