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Delaware ( ) is a
state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...
in the Mid-Atlantic region of the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...
, bordering
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean ...
to its south and west;
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
to its north; and
New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York (state), New York; on the ea ...
and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent
Delaware Bay Delaware Bay is the estuary outlet of the Delaware River on the northeast seaboard of the United States. It is approximately in area, the bay's freshwater mixes for many miles with the saltwater of the Atlantic Ocean. The bay is bordered inla ...
, in turn named after
Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr ( ; 9 July 1577 – 7 June 1618), was an English merchant and politician, for whom the bay, the river, and, consequently, a Native American people and U.S. state, all later called "Delaware", were named. He wa ...
, an English nobleman and
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...
's first colonial governor. Delaware occupies the northeastern portion of the
Delmarva Peninsula The Delmarva Peninsula, or simply Delmarva, is a large peninsula and proposed state on the East Coast of the United States, occupied by the vast majority of the state of Delaware and parts of the Eastern Shore regions of Maryland and Virgin ...
and some islands and territory within the
Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, before e ...
. It is the second-smallest and sixth-least populous state, but also the sixth-most densely populated. Delaware's largest city is Wilmington, while the state capital is
Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidsto ...
, the second-largest city in the state. The state is divided into three counties, having the lowest number of counties of any state; from north to south, they are New Castle County, Kent County, and Sussex County. While the southern two counties have historically been predominantly agricultural, New Castle is more
urbanized ''Urbanized'' is a documentary film directed by Gary Hustwit and released on 26 October 2011. It is considered the third of a three-part series on design known as the Design Trilogy; the first being ''Helvetica'', about the typeface, and the seco ...
, being part of the
Delaware Valley The Delaware Valley is a metropolitan region on the East Coast of the United States that comprises and surrounds Philadelphia, the sixth most populous city in the nation and 68th largest city in the world as of 2020. The toponym Delaware V ...
Metropolitan Statistical Area In the United States, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Such regions are neither legally incorporated as a city or to ...
centered on
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sin ...
. Although included in the
Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocea ...
by the
Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...
, Delaware's geography, culture, and history combine elements of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the country. Before its coastline was explored by
Europeans Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common genetic ancestry, common language, or both. Pan and Pfeil (2004 ...
in the 16th century, Delaware was inhabited by several groups of Native Americans, including the
Lenape The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory includ ...
in the north and Nanticoke in the south. It was initially colonized by
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People ...
traders at
Zwaanendael or was a short-lived Dutch colonial settlement in Delaware. It was built in 1631. The name is archaic Dutch for "swan valley." The site of the settlement later became the town of Lewes, Delaware. History Two directors of the Amsterdam ch ...
, near the present town of
Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of ...
, in 1631. Delaware was one of the
Thirteen Colonies The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Founded in the 17th and 18th centu ...
that took part in the
American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
. On December 7, 1787, Delaware became the first state to ratify the
Constitution of the United States The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the natio ...
, and has since been known as ''The First State''. Since the turn of the 20th century, Delaware is also a ''de facto'' onshore
corporate haven Corporate haven, corporate tax haven, or multinational tax haven is used to describe a jurisdiction that multinational corporations find attractive for establishing subsidiaries or incorporation of regional or main company headquarters, mostly du ...
, in which by virtue of its corporate laws, the state is the domicile of over half of all
NYSE The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...
-listed business and over three-fifths of the ''Fortune'' 500.


Toponymy

The state was named after
Delaware Bay Delaware Bay is the estuary outlet of the Delaware River on the northeast seaboard of the United States. It is approximately in area, the bay's freshwater mixes for many miles with the saltwater of the Atlantic Ocean. The bay is bordered inla ...
, which in turn derived its name from
Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr ( ; 9 July 1577 – 7 June 1618), was an English merchant and politician, for whom the bay, the river, and, consequently, a Native American people and U.S. state, all later called "Delaware", were named. He wa ...
(1577–1618), the first governor of the
Colony of Virginia The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colony in North America, following failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey GilbertGilbert (Saunders Family), Sir Humphrey" (hist ...
. The Delaware people, a name used by
Europeans Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common genetic ancestry, common language, or both. Pan and Pfeil (2004 ...
for
Lenape The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory includ ...
people indigenous to the Delaware Valley, also derive their name from the same source. The name ''de La Warr'' is from
Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the Englis ...
and of
Anglo Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to, or descent from, the Angles, England, English culture, the English people or the English language, such as in the term ''Anglosphere''. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to peopl ...
-French origin. It came probably from a
Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...
lieu-dit ''Lieu-dit'' (; plural: ''lieux-dits'') (literally ''said-location'') is a French toponymic term for a small geographical area bearing a traditional name. The name usually refers to some characteristic of the place, its former use, a past event, ...
''La Guerre''. This
toponymic Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
could derive from
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
'' ager'', from the Breton '' gwern'' or from the
Late Latin Late Latin ( la, Latinitas serior) is the scholarly name for the form of Literary Latin of late antiquity.Roberts (1996), p. 537. English dictionary definitions of Late Latin date this period from the , and continuing into the 7th century in th ...
''varectum'' (
fallow Fallow is a farming technique in which arable land is left without sowing for one or more vegetative cycles. The goal of fallowing is to allow the land to recover and store organic matter while retaining moisture and disrupting pest life cycles ...
). The toponyms Gara, Gare, Gaire (the sound often mutated in also appear in old texts cited by Lucien Musset, where the word ''ga(i)ra'' means gore. It could also be linked with a
patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. Patronymics are still in use, including mandatory use, in many countries worldwide, al ...
from the
Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...
'' verr''.


History


Native Americans

Before Delaware was settled by European colonists, the area was home to the Eastern Algonquian tribes known as the Unami
Lenape The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory includ ...
, or Delaware, who lived mostly along the coast, and the Nanticoke who occupied much of the southern Delmarva Peninsula. John Smith also shows two Iroquoian tribes, the Kuskarawock and
Tockwogh The Tockwogh were an Algonquian tribe first encountered in 1608 by Captain John Smith's party after being informed about them by the Massawomekes (Iroquois). The name Tockwogh is a variation of tuckahoe, a water plant with bulbous roots used f ...
, living north of the Nanticoke—they may have held small portions of land in the western part of the state before migrating across the Chesapeake Bay. The Kuskarawocks were most likely the Tuscarora. The Unami Lenape in the Delaware Valley were closely related to
Munsee The Munsee (or Minsi or Muncee) or mə́n'si·w ( del, Monsiyok)Online Lenape Talking Dictionary, "Munsee Indians"Link/ref> are a subtribe of the Lenape, originally constituting one of the three great divisions of that nation and dwelling along t ...
Lenape tribes along the
Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between New ...
. They had a settled hunting and agricultural society, and they rapidly became middlemen in an increasingly frantic fur trade with their ancient enemy, the Minqua or
Susquehannock The Susquehannock people, also called the Conestoga by some English settlers or Andastes were Iroquoian Native Americans who lived in areas adjacent to the Susquehanna River and its tributaries, ranging from its upper reaches in the southern p ...
. With the loss of their lands on the
Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, before e ...
and the destruction of the Minqua by the
Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian Peoples, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Indigenous confederations in North America, confederacy of First Nations in Canada, First Natio ...
of the Five Nations in the 1670s, the remnants of the Lenape who wished to remain identified as such left the region and moved over the
Alleghany Mountains The Allegheny Mountain Range (; also spelled Alleghany or Allegany), informally the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada and posed a significant barrier to land travel in less deve ...
by the mid-18th century. Generally, those who did not relocate out of the state of Delaware were baptized, became Christian and were grouped together with other persons of color in official records and in the minds of their non-Native American neighbors.


Colonial Delaware

The
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People ...
were the first Europeans to settle in present-day Delaware in the middle region by establishing a trading post at
Zwaanendael or was a short-lived Dutch colonial settlement in Delaware. It was built in 1631. The name is archaic Dutch for "swan valley." The site of the settlement later became the town of Lewes, Delaware. History Two directors of the Amsterdam ch ...
, near the site of
Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of ...
in 1631. Within a year all the settlers were killed in a dispute with area Native American tribes. In 1638
New Sweden New Sweden ( sv, Nya Sverige) was a Swedish colony along the lower reaches of the Delaware River in what is now the United States from 1638 to 1655, established during the Thirty Years' War when Swedish Empire, Sweden was a great military power. ...
, a Swedish trading post and colony, was established at
Fort Christina Fort Christina (also called Fort Altena) was the first Swedish settlement in North America and the principal settlement of the New Sweden colony. Built in 1638 and named after Queen Christina of Sweden, it was located approximately 1 mi (1. ...
(now in Wilmington) by
Peter Minuit Peter Minuit (between 1580 and 1585 – August 5, 1638) was a Wallonian merchant from Tournai, in present-day Belgium. He was the 3rd Director of the Dutch North American colony of New Netherland from 1626 until 1631, and 3rd Governor of New ...
at the head of a group of Swedes,
Finns Finns or Finnish people ( fi, suomalaiset, ) are a Baltic Finnic ethnic group native to Finland. Finns are traditionally divided into smaller regional groups that span several countries adjacent to Finland, both those who are native to these ...
and Dutch. The colony of New Sweden lasted 17 years. In 1651 the Dutch, reinvigorated by the leadership of
Peter Stuyvesant Peter Stuyvesant (; in Dutch also ''Pieter'' and ''Petrus'' Stuyvesant, ; 1610 – August 1672)Mooney, James E. "Stuyvesant, Peter" in p.1256 was a Dutch colonial officer who served as the last Dutch director-general of the colony of New ...
, established a fort at present-day New Castle, and in 1655 they conquered the New Sweden colony, annexing it into the Dutch
New Netherland New Netherland ( nl, Nieuw Nederland; la, Novum Belgium or ) was a 17th-century colonial province of the Dutch Republic that was located on the east coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva ...
. Only nine years later, in 1664, the Dutch were conquered by a fleet of English ships by Sir Robert Carr under the direction of James, the Duke of York. Fighting off a prior claim by
Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore (8 August 1605 – 30 November 1675), also often known as Cecilius Calvert, was an English nobleman, who was the first Proprietor of the Province of Maryland, ninth Proprietary Governor of the Colony of Newfo ...
, Proprietor of Maryland, the Duke passed his somewhat dubious ownership on to
William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy an ...
in 1682. Penn strongly desired access to the sea for his Pennsylvania province and leased what then came to be known as the "Lower Counties on the Delaware" from the Duke. Penn established representative government and briefly combined his two possessions under one General Assembly in 1682. However, by 1704 the Province of Pennsylvania had grown so large their representatives wanted to make decisions without the assent of the Lower Counties, and the two groups of representatives began meeting on their own, one at
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sin ...
, and the other at New Castle. Penn and his heirs remained proprietors of both and always appointed the same person Governor for their Province of Pennsylvania and their territory of the Lower Counties. The fact that Delaware and Pennsylvania shared the same governor was not unique. From 1703 to 1738 New York and New Jersey shared a governor. Massachusetts and New Hampshire also shared a governor for some time. Dependent in early years on indentured labor, Delaware imported more slaves as the number of English immigrants decreased with better economic conditions in England. The colony became a slave society and cultivated tobacco as a cash crop, although English immigrants continued to arrive.


American Revolution

Like the other middle colonies, the Lower Counties on the Delaware initially showed little enthusiasm for a break with
Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
. The citizenry had a good relationship with the Proprietary government, and generally were allowed more independence of action in their Colonial Assembly than in other colonies. Merchants at the port of Wilmington had trading ties with the British. New Castle lawyer
Thomas McKean Thomas McKean (March 19, 1734June 24, 1817) was an American lawyer, politician, and Founding Father. During the American Revolution, he was a Delaware delegate to the Continental Congress, where he signed the Continental Association, the Unit ...
denounced the Stamp Act in the strongest terms, and Kent County native
John Dickinson John Dickinson (November 13 Julian_calendar">/nowiki>Julian_calendar_November_2.html" ;"title="Julian_calendar.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Julian calendar">/nowiki>Julian calendar November 2">Julian_calendar.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Julian calendar" ...
became the "Penman of the Revolution." Anticipating the Declaration of Independence, Patriot leaders Thomas McKean and
Caesar Rodney Caesar Rodney (October 7, 1728 – June 26, 1784) was an American Founding Father, lawyer, and politician from St. Jones Neck in Dover Hundred, Kent County, Delaware. He was an officer of the Delaware militia during the French and Indian War ...
convinced the Colonial Assembly to declare itself separated from British and Pennsylvania rule on June 15, 1776. The person best representing Delaware's majority, George Read, could not bring himself to vote for a Declaration of Independence. Only the dramatic overnight ride of Caesar Rodney gave the delegation the votes needed to cast Delaware's vote for independence. Initially led by
John Haslet John Haslet ( – January 3, 1777) was an American Presbyterian clergyman and soldier from Milford, in Kent County, Delaware. He was a veteran of the French and Indian War and an officer of the Continental Army in the American Revolution, servin ...
, Delaware provided one of the premier regiments in the
Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies (the Thirteen Colonies) in the Revolutionary-era United States. It was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and was establ ...
, known as the "Delaware Blues" and nicknamed the " Blue Hen's Chicks". In August 1777 General Sir William Howe led a British army through Delaware on his way to a victory at the
Battle of Brandywine The Battle of Brandywine, also known as the Battle of Brandywine Creek, was fought between the American Continental Army of General George Washington and the British Army of General Sir William Howe on September 11, 1777, as part of the A ...
and capture of the city of Philadelphia. The only real engagement on Delaware soil was the
Battle of Cooch's Bridge The Battle of Cooch's Bridge, also known as the Battle of Iron Hill, was a battle fought on September 3, 1777, between the Continental Army and American militia and primarily German soldiers serving alongside the British Army during the Americ ...
, fought on September 3, 1777, at Cooch's Bridge in New Castle County, although there was a minor Loyalist rebellion in 1778. Following the Battle of Brandywine, Wilmington was occupied by the British, and State President
John McKinly John McKinly (February 24, 1721August 31, 1796) was an American physician and politician from Wilmington, Delaware. He was a veteran of the French and Indian War, served in the Delaware General Assembly, was the first elected President of Delawar ...
was taken prisoner. The British remained in control of the Delaware River for much of the rest of the war, disrupting commerce and providing encouragement to an active
Loyalist Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cr ...
portion of the population, particularly in Sussex County. Because the British promised slaves of rebels freedom for fighting with them, escaped slaves flocked north to join their lines. Following the
American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
, statesmen from Delaware were among the leading proponents of a strong central United States with equal representation for each state.


Slavery and race

Many colonial settlers came to Delaware from Maryland and Virginia, where the population had been increasing rapidly. The economies of these colonies were chiefly based on labor-intensive tobacco and increasingly dependent on African
slaves Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
because of a decline in working class immigrants from England. Most of the English colonists had arrived as
indentured servant Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract, called an "indenture", may be entered "voluntarily" for purported eventual compensation or debt repayment ...
s (contracted for a fixed period to pay for their passage), and in the early years the line between servant and slave was fluid. Most of the free African-American families in Delaware before the Revolution had migrated from Maryland to find more affordable land. They were descendants chiefly of relationships or marriages between white servant women and enslaved, servant or free African or African-American men. Under slavery law, children took the social status of their mothers, so children born to white women were free, regardless of their paternity, just as children born to enslaved women were born into slavery. As the flow of indentured laborers to the colony decreased with improving economic conditions in England, more slaves were imported for labor and the caste lines hardened. By the end of the colonial period, the number of enslaved people in Delaware began to decline. Shifts in the agriculture economy from tobacco to mixed farming resulted in less need for slaves' labor. In addition local
Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...
s and
Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...
s encouraged slaveholders to free their slaves following the American Revolution, and many did so in a surge of individual manumissions for idealistic reasons. By 1810 three-quarters of all blacks in Delaware were free. When John Dickinson freed his slaves in 1777, he was Delaware's largest slave owner with 37 slaves. By 1860, the largest slaveholder owned 16 slaves. Although attempts to abolish slavery failed by narrow margins in the legislature, in practical terms the state had mostly ended the practice. By the 1860 census on the verge of the
Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policie ...
, 91.7% of the black population were free; 1,798 were slaves, as compared to 19,829 "free colored persons". An independent black denomination was chartered in 1813 by freed slave
Peter Spencer Peter or Pete Spencer may refer to: *Peter Spencer (religious leader) Peter Spencer (1782–1843) was an American freedman who in 1813 founded the Union Church of Africans in Wilmington, Delaware. The denomination is now known as the African ...
as the " Union Church of Africans". This followed the 1793 establishment in Philadelphia of the
African Methodist Episcopal Church The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a predominantly African American Methodist denomination. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexional polity. The African Methodist Episcopal ...
by Richard Allen, which had ties to the Methodist Episcopal Church until 1816. Spencer built a church in Wilmington for the new denomination. This was renamed as the
African Union First Colored Methodist Protestant Church and Connection The African Union First Colored Methodist Protestant Church and Connection, usually called "the A.U.M.P. Church," is a Methodist denomination. It was chartered by Peter Spencer (1782–1843) in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1813 as the "Union Church of ...
, more commonly known as the
A.U.M.P. Church The African Union First Colored Methodist Protestant Church and Connection, usually called "the A.U.M.P. Church," is a Methodist denomination. It was chartered by Peter Spencer (1782–1843) in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1813 as the "Union Church of ...
. In 1814, Spencer called for the first annual gathering, known as the
Big August Quarterly Big August Quarterly is an annual religious festival held in Wilmington, Delaware (sometimes called "Big Quarterly" or "August Quarterly"). Begun in 1814 by Peter Spencer Peter or Pete Spencer may refer to: *Peter Spencer (religious leader) P ...
, which continues to draw members of this denomination and their descendants together in a religious and cultural festival. Delaware voted against
secession Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics le ...
on January 3, 1861, and so remained in the Union. While most Delaware citizens who fought in the war served in the regiments of the state, some served in companies on the Confederate side in
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean ...
and
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...
Regiments. Delaware is notable for being the only slave state from which no Confederate regiments or militia groups were assembled. Delaware essentially freed the few slaves who were still in bondage shortly after the Civil War but rejected the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution; the 13th Amendment was rejected on February 8, 1865, the 14th Amendment was rejected on February 8, 1867, and the 15th Amendment was rejected on March 18, 1869. Delaware officially ratified the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments on February 12, 1901.


Reconstruction and industrialization

After the Civil War, Democratic governments led by the state's Bourbon aristocracy continued to dominate the state and imposed an explicitly white supremacist regime in the state. The Democratic legislatures declared blacks second-class citizens in 1866 and restricted their voting rights despite the Fifteenth Amendment, ensuring continued Democratic success throughout most of the nineteenth century. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, the Wilmington area grew into a manufacturing center. Investment in manufacturing in the city grew from $5.5 million in 1860 to $44 million in 1900. The most notable manufacturer in the state was the chemical company
DuPont DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...
, which to this day is heavily credited with making the state what it is today in many ways. Because of Wilmington's growth, local politicians from the city and New Castle County pressured the state government to adopt a new constitution providing the north with more representation. However, the subsequent 1897 constitution did not proportionally represent the north and continued to give the southern counties disproportionate influence. As manufacturing expanded, businesses became major players in state affairs and funders of politicians through families such as the Du Ponts. Republican John Addicks attempted to buy a US Senate seat multiple times in a rivalry with the Du Ponts until the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment. The allegiance of industries with the Republican party allowed them to gain control of the state's governorship throughout most of the twentieth century. The GOP ensured blacks could vote because of their general support for Republicans and thus undid restrictions on black suffrage. Delaware benefited greatly from World War I because of the state's large gunpowder industry. DuPont, the most dominant business in the state by WWI, produced an estimated 40% of all gunpowder used by the Allies during the war. It produced nylon in the state after the war and began investments into
General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American multinational automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and was the largest in the world for 77 years bef ...
. Additionally, the company invested heavily in the expansion of public schools in the state and colleges such as the
University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 m ...
in the 1910s and 1920s. This included primary and secondary schools for blacks and women. Delaware suffered less during the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The Financial contagion, ...
than other states, but the depression spurred further migration from the rural south to urban areas.


World War II to present

Like in World War I, the state enjoyed a big stimulus to its gunpowder and shipyard industries in World War II. New job opportunities during and after the war in the Wilmington area coaxed African Americans from the southern counties to move to the city. The proportion of blacks constituting the city's population rose from 15% in 1950 to over 50% by 1980. The surge of black migrants to the north sparked white flight in which middle class whites moved from the city to suburban areas, leading to general segregation of Delaware's society. In the 1940s and 1950s, the state attempted to integrate its schools. The University of Delaware admitted its first black student in 1948, and local courts ruled that primary schools had to be integrated. Delaware's integration efforts partially inspired the US Supreme Court's decision in
Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segrega ...
. However, integration only encouraged more white flight, and poor economic conditions for the black population led to some violence during the 1960s. Riots broke out in Wilmington in 1967 and again in 1968 in response to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr after which the National Guard occupied the city for nine months to prevent further violence. Since WWII, the state has been generally economically prosperous and enjoyed relatively high per capita income because of its location between major cities like Philadelphia, New York, and Washington, DC. Its population grew rapidly, particularly in the suburbs in the north where New Castle county became an extension of the
Philadelphia metropolitan area Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since 1 ...
. Americans, including migrants from Puerto Rico, and immigrants from Latin America flocked to the state. By 1990, only 50% of Delaware's population consisted of natives to the state.


Geography

Delaware is long and ranges from to across, totaling an area of either , or making it the second-smallest state in the United States after
Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but ...
. Delaware is bounded to the north by
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
; to the east by the
Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, before e ...
,
Delaware Bay Delaware Bay is the estuary outlet of the Delaware River on the northeast seaboard of the United States. It is approximately in area, the bay's freshwater mixes for many miles with the saltwater of the Atlantic Ocean. The bay is bordered inla ...
,
New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York (state), New York; on the ea ...
and the Atlantic Ocean; and to the west and south by
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean ...
. Small portions of Delaware are also situated on the eastern side of the Delaware River sharing land boundaries with New Jersey. The state of Delaware, together with the Eastern Shore counties of Maryland and two counties of Virginia, form the
Delmarva Peninsula The Delmarva Peninsula, or simply Delmarva, is a large peninsula and proposed state on the East Coast of the United States, occupied by the vast majority of the state of Delaware and parts of the Eastern Shore regions of Maryland and Virgin ...
, which stretches down the Mid-Atlantic Coast. The definition of the northern boundary of the state is unusual. Most of the boundary between Delaware and Pennsylvania was originally defined by an arc extending from the
cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, fro ...
of the courthouse in the city of New Castle. This boundary is often referred to as the
Twelve-Mile Circle The Twelve-Mile Circle is an approximately circular arc which forms most of the boundary between Pennsylvania and Delaware. It is not actually a circle, but rather a combination of different circular arcs that have been feathered together. It is ...
. Although the Twelve-Mile Circle is often claimed to be the only territorial boundary in the U.S. that is a true arc, the Mexican boundary with Texas includes several arcs, and many cities in the South (such as
Plains, Georgia Plains is a town in Sumter County, Georgia, United States. The population was 776 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Americus Micropolitan Statistical Area. Plains is best known as the birthplace and home of Jimmy Carter, the 39th president ...
) also have circular boundaries. This border extends all the way east to the low-tide mark on the New Jersey shore, then continues south along the shoreline until it again reaches the arc in the south; then the boundary continues in a more conventional way in the middle of the main channel (
thalweg In geography and fluvial geomorphology, a thalweg or talweg () is the line of lowest elevation within a valley or watercourse. Under international law, a thalweg is the middle of the primary navigable channel of a waterway that defines the ...
) of the Delaware River. To the west, a portion of the arc extends past the easternmost edge of Maryland. The remaining western border runs slightly east of due south from its intersection with the arc.
The Wedge A wedge is a triangular-shaped simple machine. Wedge, The Wedge, or Wedges may also refer to: Common meanings * Wedge (footwear), a type of shoe * Wedge (golf), a type of golf club Culture Fictional characters * Wedge (''Transformers''), an ...
of land between the northwest part of the arc and the Maryland border was claimed by both Delaware and Pennsylvania until 1921, when Delaware's claim was confirmed.


Topography

Delaware is on a level plain, with the lowest mean elevation of any state in the nation. Its highest elevation, located at
Ebright Azimuth The Ebright Azimuth is the point with the highest benchmark monument elevation in the U.S. state of Delaware. It is marked with a geodetic benchmark monument and has an elevation of above sea level. The only state high-point with a lower el ...
, near Concord High School, is less than above sea level. The northernmost part of the state is part of the
Piedmont Plateau The Piedmont is a plateau region located in the Eastern United States. It is situated between the Atlantic coastal plain and the main Appalachian Mountains, stretching from New York in the north to central Alabama in the south. The Piedm ...
with hills and rolling surfaces. The Atlantic Seaboard fall line approximately follows the Robert Kirkwood Highway between Newark and Wilmington; south of this road is the
Atlantic Coastal Plain The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...
with flat, sandy, and, in some parts, swampy ground. A ridge about high extends along the western boundary of the state and separates the watersheds that feed Delaware River and Bay to the east and the
Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the Eastern Shore of Maryland / ...
to the west.


Climate

Since almost all of Delaware is a part of the
Atlantic coastal plain The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...
, the effects of the ocean moderate its climate. The state lies in the
humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40� ...
(Köppen ''Cfa'') zone. Despite its small size (roughly from its northernmost to southernmost points), there is significant variation in mean temperature and amount of snowfall between Sussex County and New Castle County. Moderated by the Atlantic Ocean and
Delaware Bay Delaware Bay is the estuary outlet of the Delaware River on the northeast seaboard of the United States. It is approximately in area, the bay's freshwater mixes for many miles with the saltwater of the Atlantic Ocean. The bay is bordered inla ...
, the southern portion of the state has a milder climate and a longer growing season than the northern portion of the state. Delaware's all-time record high of was recorded at Millsboro on July 21, 1930. The all-time record low of was also recorded at Millsboro, on January 17, 1893. The
hardiness zone A hardiness zone is a geographic area defined as having a certain average annual minimum temperature, a factor relevant to the survival of many plants. In some systems other statistics are included in the calculations. The original and most wide ...
s are 6b, 7a and 7b.


Environment

The transitional climate of Delaware supports a wide variety of vegetation. In the northern third of the state are found
Northeastern coastal forests The Northeastern coastal forests are a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion of the northeast and middle Atlantic region of the United States. The ecoregion covers an area of 34,630 sq miles (89,691 km2) encompassing the Piedmon ...
and mixed
oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ...
forests typical of the northeastern United States. In the southern two-thirds of the state are found
Middle Atlantic coastal forests The Middle Atlantic coastal forests are a temperate coniferous forest mixed with patches of evergreen broadleaved forests (closer to the Atlantic coast) along the coast of the southeastern United States. Setting The Middle Atlantic coastal fo ...
.
Trap Pond State Park Trap Pond State Park is a 3,653 acre (8.5 km²) Delaware state park located near Laurel, Delaware, USA. It is one of the largest surviving fragments of what was once an extensive wetland in what is now southwestern Sussex County. The stat ...
, along with areas in other parts of Sussex County, for example, support the northernmost stands of
bald cypress ''Taxodium distichum'' (bald cypress, swamp cypress; french: cyprès chauve; ''cipre'' in Louisiana) is a deciduous conifer in the family Cupressaceae. It is native to the southeastern United States. Hardy and tough, this tree adapts to a wide r ...
trees in North America.


Environmental management

Delaware provides government subsidy support for the clean-up of property "lightly contaminated" by
hazardous waste Hazardous waste is waste that has substantial or potential threats to public health or the environment. Hazardous waste is a type of dangerous goods. They usually have one or more of the following hazardous traits: ignitability, reactivity, c ...
, the proceeds for which come from a tax on wholesale petroleum sales.


Municipalities

Wilmington is the state's most populous city (70,635) and its economic hub. It is located within commuting distance of both Philadelphia and Baltimore. Dover is the state capital and the second most populous city (38,079).


Counties

*
Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it fac ...
* New Castle *
Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the Englis ...


Cities

* Delaware City *
Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidsto ...
* Harrington *
Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of ...
* Middletown * Milford * New Castle * Newark * Rehoboth Beach * Seaford * Wilmington


Towns

* Bellefonte * Bethany Beach *
Bethel Bethel ( he, בֵּית אֵל, translit=Bēṯ 'Ēl, "House of El" or "House of God",Bleeker and Widegren, 1988, p. 257. also transliterated ''Beth El'', ''Beth-El'', ''Beit El''; el, Βαιθήλ; la, Bethel) was an ancient Israelite san ...
* Blades * Bowers * Bridgeville * Camden * Cheswold * Clayton * Dagsboro * Delmar * Dewey Beach * Ellendale * Elsmere * Farmington * Felton * Fenwick Island * Frankford * Frederica * Georgetown * Greenwood * Hartly * Henlopen Acres *
Houston Houston (; ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in Texas, the Southern United States#Major cities, most populous city in the Southern United States, the List of United States cities by population, fourth-most pop ...
* Kenton *
Laurel Laurel may refer to: Plants * Lauraceae, the laurel family * Laurel (plant), including a list of trees and plants known as laurel People * Laurel (given name), people with the given name * Laurel (surname), people with the surname * Laurel ( ...
* Leipsic * Little Creek *
Magnolia ''Magnolia'' is a large genus of about 210 to 340The number of species in the genus ''Magnolia'' depends on the taxonomic view that one takes up. Recent molecular and morphological research shows that former genera ''Talauma'', ''Dugandiodendro ...
* Millsboro * Millville * Milton * Newport * Ocean View *
Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrati ...
* Selbyville * Slaughter Beach *
Smyrna Smyrna ( ; grc, Σμύρνη, Smýrnē, or , ) was a Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to promi ...
* South Bethany * Townsend *
Viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the violi ...
* Woodside *
Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to t ...


Villages

* Arden * Ardencroft * Ardentown


Unincorporated places

*
Bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the ...
* Brookside * Christiana * Clarksville * Claymont * Dover Base Housing * Edgemoor *
Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
* Greenville * Gumboro * Harbeson * Highland Acres * Hockessin * Kent Acres * Lincoln City * Long Neck * Marshallton * Mount Pleasant *
North Star Polaris is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. It is designated α Ursae Minoris ( Latinized to ''Alpha Ursae Minoris'') and is commonly called the North Star or Pole Star. With an apparent magnitude tha ...
* Oak Orchard *
Omar ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb ( ar, عمر بن الخطاب, also spelled Omar, ) was the second Rashidun caliph, ruling from August 634 until his assassination in 644. He succeeded Abu Bakr () as the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate o ...
* Pennyhill * Pike Creek * Rising Sun-Lebanon * Riverview * Rodney Village *
Roxana Roxana (c. 340 BC – 310 BC, grc, Ῥωξάνη; Old Iranian: ''*Raṷxšnā-'' "shining, radiant, brilliant"; sometimes Roxanne, Roxanna, Rukhsana, Roxandra and Roxane) was a Sogdian or a Bactrian princess whom Alexander the Great married af ...
* Saint Georges * Sandtown * Stanton * Wilmington Manor *
Woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...
* Woodside East * Yorklyn File:Dover Delaware.jpg,
Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidsto ...
File:Newark DE Main Street.jpg, Newark File:High Street, Seaford, Delaware (2006).jpg, Seaford File:Wilmington Delaware skyline.jpg, Wilmington
The table below lists the ten largest municipalities in the state based on the 2018 United States census estimate.


Demographics

The
United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of th ...
determined that the population of Delaware was 989,948 on April 1, 2020, an increase since the
2010 United States census The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators servi ...
at 897,934. Delaware's history as a border state has led it to exhibit characteristics of both the Northern and the
Southern Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, ...
regions of the United States. Generally, the rural Southern (or "Slower Lower") regions of Delaware below the
Chesapeake and Delaware Canal The Chesapeake & Delaware Canal (C&D Canal) is a -long, -wide and -deep ship canal that connects the Delaware River with the Chesapeake Bay in the states of Delaware and Maryland in the United States. In the mid‑17th century, mapmaker Aug ...
embody a
Southern culture The culture of the Southern United States, Southern culture, or Southern heritage, is a subculture of the United States. The combination of its unique history and the fact that many Southerners maintain—and even nurture—an identity separate f ...
, while densely-populated Northern Delaware above the canal—particularly Wilmington, a part of the
Philadelphia metropolitan area Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since 1 ...
—has more in common with that of the
Northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each ...
. The U.S. Census Bureau designates Delaware as one of the
South Atlantic States The South Atlantic United States form one of the nine Census Bureau Divisions within the United States that are recognized by the United States Census Bureau. This region, U.S. Census Bureau Region 3, Division 5, corresponds to the South (sta ...
, but it is commonly associated with the Mid-Atlantic States and/or
northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each ...
ern United States by other federal agencies, the media, and some residents. Delaware is the sixth most densely populated state, with a population density of 442.6 people per square mile, 356.4 per square mile more than the national average, and ranking 45th in population. Delaware is one of five U.S. states (Maine, Vermont, West Virginia, Wyoming) that do not have a single city with a population over 100,000 as of the 2010 census. The
center of population In demographics, the center of population (or population center) of a region is a geographical point that describes a centerpoint of the region's population. There are several ways of defining such a "center point", leading to different geogr ...
of Delaware is in New Castle County, in the town of Townsend. , 49.7% of Delaware's population younger than one year of age belonged to minority groups (i.e., did not have two parents of non-Hispanic white ancestry). In 2000 approximately 19% of the population were African-American and 5% of the population is Hispanic (mostly of Puerto Rican or Mexican ancestry).


Race and ethnicity

According to the 2010 United States census, the racial composition of the state was 68.9%
White American White Americans are Americans who identify as and are perceived to be white people. This group constitutes the majority of the people in the United States. As of the 2020 Census, 61.6%, or 204,277,273 people, were white alone. This represente ...
(65.3%
Non-Hispanic White Non-Hispanic whites or Non-Latino whites are Americans who are classified as "white", and are not of Hispanic (also known as "Latino") heritage. The United States Census Bureau defines ''white'' to include European Americans, Middle Eastern Amer ...
, 3.6%
White Hispanic White Latin Americans, or European Latin Americans, are Latin Americans who are considered white, typically due to European descent. Latin American countries have often tolerated intermarriage between different ethnic groups since the beginning ...
), 21.4%
Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...
or African American, 0.5% American Indian and
Alaska Native Alaska Natives (also known as Alaskan Natives, Native Alaskans, Indigenous Alaskans, Aboriginal Alaskans or First Alaskans) are the indigenous peoples of Alaska and include Iñupiat, Yupik, Aleut, Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and a nu ...
, 3.2% Asian American, 0.0%
Native Hawaiian Native Hawaiians (also known as Indigenous Hawaiians, Kānaka Maoli, Aboriginal Hawaiians, First Hawaiians, or simply Hawaiians) ( haw, kānaka, , , and ), are the indigenous ethnic group of Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands. Hawa ...
and other
Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/ racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...
, 3.4% some other race, and 2.7%
Multiracial American Multiracial Americans are Americans who have mixed ancestry of two or more races. The term may also include Americans of mixed race ancestry who self-identify with just one group culturally and socially (cf. the one-drop rule). In the 2010 Unit ...
. Ethnically,
Hispanics The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...
and Latin Americans of any race made up 8.2% of the population. The 2019
American Community Survey The American Community Survey (ACS) is a demographics survey program conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. It regularly gathers information previously contained only in the long form of the decennial census, such as ancestry, citizenship, educat ...
estimated the state had a racial and ethnic makeup of 61.% non-Hispanic whites, 23.2% Black or African American, 0.7% American Indian or Alaska Native, 4.1% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 2.7% multiracial, and 9.6% Hispanic or Latin American of any race. In the Native American community, the state has a Native American group (called in their own language
Lenni Lenape The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory inclu ...
) which was influential in the colonial period of the United States and is today headquartered in Cheswold, Kent County, Delaware. A band of the Nanticoke tribe of American Indians today resides in Sussex County and is headquartered in Millsboro, Sussex County, Delaware.


Birth data

''Note: Births in table do not add up because Hispanics are counted both by their ethnicity and by their race, giving a higher overall number.'' * Since 2016, data for births of
White Hispanic White Latin Americans, or European Latin Americans, are Latin Americans who are considered white, typically due to European descent. Latin American countries have often tolerated intermarriage between different ethnic groups since the beginning ...
origin are not collected, but included in one ''Hispanic'' group; persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race.


Languages

As of 2000, 91% of Delaware residents of age5 and older spoke only English at home; 5% spoke Spanish. French was the third-most spoken language at 0.7%, followed by Chinese at 0.5% and German at 0.5%. Legislation had been proposed in both the House and the Senate in Delaware to designate English as the
official language An official language is a language given supreme status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically the term "official language" does not refer to the language used by a people or country, but by its government (e.g. judiciary, ...
. Neither bill was passed in the legislature.


Sexual orientation

A 2012 Gallup poll found that Delaware's proportion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender adults stood at 3.4 percent of the population. This constitutes a total LGBT adult population estimate of 23,698 people. The number of same-sex couple households in 2010 stood at 2,646. This grew by 41.65% from a decade earlier. On July 1, 2013, same-sex marriage was legalized, and all civil unions would be converted into marriages.


Religion

, the
Pew Research Center The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan American think tank (referring to itself as a "fact tank") based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the ...
estimated Delaware is mostly
Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words '' Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...
. Although
Protestants Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
account for almost half of the population, the
Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
is the largest single denomination in the state. The Association of Religion Data Archives reported in 2010 that the three largest denominational groups in Delaware by number of adherents are the
Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
at 182,532 adherents, the
United Methodist Church The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelica ...
with 53,656 members reported, and non-denominational
Evangelical Protestant Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "born again", in which an individual exper ...
with 22,973 adherents reported. By 2020, the
Public Religion Research Institute The Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) is an American nonprofit, nonpartisan research and education organization that conducts public opinion polls on a variety of topics, specializing in the quantitative and qualitative study of politica ...
determined 61% of the population was Christian. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Wilmington and the Episcopal Diocese of Delaware oversee the parishes within their denominations. The
A.U.M.P. Church The African Union First Colored Methodist Protestant Church and Connection, usually called "the A.U.M.P. Church," is a Methodist denomination. It was chartered by Peter Spencer (1782–1843) in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1813 as the "Union Church of ...
, the oldest African-American denomination in the nation, was founded in Wilmington. It still has a substantial presence in the state. Reflecting new immigrant populations, an Islamic mosque has been built in the Ogletown area, and a Hindu temple in Hockessin. Delaware is home to an
Amish The Amish (; pdc, Amisch; german: link=no, Amische), formally the Old Order Amish, are a group of traditionalist Anabaptist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsatian origins. They are closely related to Mennonite churches ...
community which resides west of
Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidsto ...
in Kent County, consisting of nine church districts and about 1,650 people. The Amish first settled in Kent County in 1915. In recent years, increasing development has led to the decline in the number of Amish living in the community. A 2012 survey of religious attitudes in the United States found that 34% of Delaware residents considered themselves "moderately religious", 33% "very religious", and 33% as "non-religious". At the 2014
Pew Research The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan American think tank (referring to itself as a "fact tank") based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the wo ...
survey, 23% of the population were irreligious; the 2020 Public Religion Research Institute's survey determined 31% of the population were irreligious.


Economy


Affluence

According to a 2020 study by Kiplinger, Delaware had the seventeenth largest number of millionaires per capita in the United States, with a ratio of 6.98 percent, 0.7 percent from 2013 in ration but falling eight places in ranking. Delaware had 25,937 millionaires as of 2020. The median income for all Delaware households as of 2020 was $64,805.


Agriculture

Delaware's agricultural output consists of poultry, nursery stock,
soybeans The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses. Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu an ...
, dairy products and
corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. T ...
.


Industries

, the state's unemployment rate was 3.7%. The state's largest employers are: * government (State of Delaware, New Castle County) * education (
University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 m ...
, Delaware Technical Community College) * banking (
Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The bank ...
, M&T Bank,
JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the ...
,
Citigroup Citigroup Inc. or Citi (stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomera ...
,
Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...
) * chemical, pharmaceutical, technology ( DuPont de Nemours Inc.,
AstraZeneca AstraZeneca plc () is a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with its headquarters at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in Cambridge, England. It has a portfolio of products for major diseases in areas includi ...
,
Syngenta Syngenta AG is a provider of agricultural science and technology, in particular seeds and pesticides with its management headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. It is owned by ChemChina, a Chinese state-owned enterprise. Syngenta was founded in 2 ...
,
Agilent Technologies Agilent Technologies, Inc. is an American life sciences company that provides instruments, software, services, and consumables for the entire laboratory workflow. Its global headquarters is located in Santa Clara, California. Agilent was establi ...
) * healthcare ( ChristianaCare ( Christiana Hospital),
Bayhealth Medical Center Bayhealth Medical Center is a healthcare system serving the central and southern portion of Delaware in the United States. Locations Bayhealth Medical Center operates two hospitals: Bayhealth Hospital, Kent Campus in Dover and Bayhealth Hospital, ...
, Nemours Children's Hospital, Delaware) * farming, specifically chicken farming in Sussex County ( Perdue Farms, Mountaire Farms, Allen Family Foods) * retail (
Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarte ...
,
Walgreens Walgreen Company, d/b/a Walgreens, is an American company that operates the second-largest pharmacy store chain in the United States behind CVS Health. It specializes in filling prescriptions, health and wellness products, health information, an ...
, Acme Markets)


Industrial decline

Since the mid-2000s, Delaware has seen the departure of the state's automotive manufacturing industry (
General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American multinational automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and was the largest in the world for 77 years bef ...
Wilmington Assembly and
Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automoti ...
Newark Assembly Newark Assembly was a Chrysler (DaimlerChrysler from 1998-2008) factory in Newark, Delaware built in 1951 to make tanks and later automobiles with production continuing until December 2008. A variety of Chrysler, Dodge, and Plymouth models were p ...
), the corporate buyout of a major bank holding company (
MBNA MBNA Corporation was a bank holding company and parent company of wholly owned subsidiary MBNA America Bank, N.A., headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, prior to being acquired by Bank of America in 2006. History The former Maryland National ...
), the departure of the state's steel industry ( Evraz Claymont Steel), the bankruptcy of a fiber mill (National Vulcanized Fibre), and the diminishing presence of
AstraZeneca AstraZeneca plc () is a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with its headquarters at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in Cambridge, England. It has a portfolio of products for major diseases in areas includi ...
in Wilmington. In late 2015, DuPont announced that 1,700 employees, nearly a third of its footprint in Delaware, would be laid off in early 2016. The merger of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. and
Dow Chemical Company The Dow Chemical Company, officially Dow Inc., is an American multinational chemical corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. The company is among the three largest chemical producers in the world. Dow manufactures plastics ...
into
DowDuPont DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...
took place on September 1, 2017.


Incorporation in Delaware

More than half of all U.S. publicly traded companies, and 63% of the
Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along w ...
, are incorporated in Delaware. The state's attractiveness as a
corporate haven Corporate haven, corporate tax haven, or multinational tax haven is used to describe a jurisdiction that multinational corporations find attractive for establishing subsidiaries or incorporation of regional or main company headquarters, mostly du ...
is largely because of its business-friendly corporation law.
Franchise tax A franchise tax is a government levy (tax) charged by some US states to certain business organizations such as corporations and partnerships A partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as business partners, agree to cooperate to ad ...
es on Delaware corporations supply about a fifth of the state's revenue. Although "USA (Delaware)" ranked as the world's most opaque jurisdiction on the
Tax Justice Network The Tax Justice Network (or TJN) is an advocacy group consisting of a coalition of researchers and activists with a shared concern about tax avoidance, tax competition, and tax havens. Empirical results The TJN has reported on the OECD Base e ...
's 2009 Financial Secrecy Index, the same group's 2011 Index ranks the U.S. fifth and does not specify Delaware. In Delaware, there are more than a million registered corporations, meaning there are more corporations than people.


Food and drink

Title 4, chapter 7 of the Delaware Code stipulates that alcoholic liquor be sold only in specifically licensed establishments, and only between 9:00a.m. and 1:00a.m. Until 2003, Delaware was among the several states enforcing
blue law Blue laws, also known as Sunday laws, Sunday trade laws and Sunday closing laws, are laws restricting or banning certain activities on specified days, usually Sundays in the western world. The laws were adopted originally for religious reasons, ...
s and banned the sale of liquor on Sunday.


Media


Newspapers

Two
daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports an ...
s are based in Delaware, the ''
Delaware State News ''Delaware State News'' is an American daily newspaper published in Dover, Delaware. It is owned by Independent Newsmedia Inc. USA and prints seven days a week. It bills itself as "The Capital Daily" and "downstate Delaware's dominant daily newsp ...
'', based in Dover and covering the two southern counties, and ''
The News Journal ''The News Journal'' is the main newspaper for Wilmington, Delaware, and the surrounding area. It is headquartered in unincorporated New Castle County, Delaware, near New Castle, and is owned by Gannett. History The ancestry of the News Jo ...
'' covering Wilmington and northern Delaware. The state is also served by several weekly, monthly and online publications.


Television

No standalone television stations are based solely in Delaware. The northern part of the state is served by network stations in
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sin ...
and the southern part by network stations in
Salisbury, Maryland Salisbury () is a city in and the county seat of Wicomico County, Maryland, United States, and the largest city in the state's Eastern Shore region. The population was 33,050 at the 2020 census. Salisbury is the principal city of the Salisbury ...
. Philadelphia's ABC affiliate,
WPVI-TV WPVI-TV (channel 6), branded on-air as 6 ABC, is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the stati ...
, maintains a news bureau in downtown Wilmington. Salisbury's
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
affiliate,
WBOC-TV WBOC-TV (channel 16) is a television station in Salisbury, Maryland, United States, affiliated with CBS and Fox. It is the flagship television property of the Milton, Delaware–based Draper Holdings Business Trust, and is co-owned with low-p ...
, maintains bureaus in Dover and Milton. Three Philadelphia-market stations—
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educ ...
member
WHYY-TV WHYY-TV (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Wilmington, Delaware, United States, serving as the primary PBS member station for the Philadelphia area. It is owned by WHYY, Inc., alongside NPR member station WHYY-FM 90.9. WHYY-TV and ...
,
Ion An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conv ...
affiliate WPPX, and
MeTV MeTV, an acronym for Memorable Entertainment Television, is an American broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Marketed as "The Definitive Destination for Classic TV", the network airs a variety of classic television progra ...
affiliate
WDPN-TV WDPN-TV (channel 2) is a television station licensed to Wilmington, Delaware, United States, serving the Philadelphia area as an affiliate of the classic television network MeTV. It is owned by Maranatha Broadcasting Company alongside Allentown, P ...
—all have Wilmington as their
city of license In American, Canadian, and Mexican broadcasting, a city of license or community of license is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator. In North American bro ...
, but maintain transmitters at the market antenna farm in Roxborough, Philadelphia and do not produce any Delaware-centric programming.


Radio

There are a numerous radio stations licensed in Delaware. WDEL 1150AM, WHGE-LP 95.3 FM, WILM 1450 AM, WJBR-FM 99.5, WMPH 91.7 FM,
WSTW WSTW (93.7 FM, "93.7 WSTW") is a commercial FM radio station licensed to serve Wilmington, Delaware. The station is owned by (Forever Media) and broadcasts a contemporary hit radio (CHR) format. WSTW's studios and offices are on Shipley Road ...
93.7 FM, WTMC 1380 AM and WWTX 1290AM are licensed from Wilmington. WRDX 92.9 FM is licensed from Smyrna. WDOV 1410AM, WDSD 94.7 FM and WRTX 91.7 FM are licensed from Dover.


Tourism

Delaware is home to
First State National Historical Park First State National Historical Park is a National Park Service unit which lies primarily in the state of Delaware but which extends partly into Pennsylvania in Chadds Ford. Initially created as First State National Monument by President Barack ...
, a
National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational proper ...
unit composed of historic sites across the state including the New Castle Court House, Green, and Sheriff's House, Dover Green, Beaver Valley,
Fort Christina Fort Christina (also called Fort Altena) was the first Swedish settlement in North America and the principal settlement of the New Sweden colony. Built in 1638 and named after Queen Christina of Sweden, it was located approximately 1 mi (1. ...
, Old Swedes' Church, John Dickinson Plantation, and the Ryves Holt House. Delaware has several
museums A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...
, wildlife refuges,
parks A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are green spaces set aside for recreation inside towns and cities. N ...
,
houses A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condit ...
,
lighthouses A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses m ...
, and other historic places. Rehoboth Beach, together with the towns of
Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of ...
, Dewey Beach, Bethany Beach, South Bethany, and Fenwick Island, comprise Delaware's beach resorts. Rehoboth Beach often bills itself as "The Nation's Summer Capital" because it is a frequent summer vacation destination for Washington, D.C., residents as well as visitors from Maryland, Virginia, and in lesser numbers, Pennsylvania. Vacationers are drawn for many reasons, including the town's charm, artistic appeal, nightlife, and tax-free shopping. According to SeaGrant Delaware, the Delaware beaches generate $6.9billion annually and over $711million in tax revenue. Delaware is home to several festivals, fairs, and events. Some of the more notable festivals are the Riverfest held in Seaford, the World Championship
Punkin Chunkin Punkin chunkin, or as it is sometimes called pumpkin chucking, is the sport of hurling a pumpkin solely by mechanical means for distance. The devices used include slingshots, catapults, centrifugals, trebuchets, and pneumatic (air) cannons. P ...
formerly held at various locations throughout the state since 1986, the Rehoboth Beach Chocolate Festival, the Bethany Beach Jazz Funeral to mark the end of summer, the Apple Scrapple Festival held in Bridgeville, the
Clifford Brown Clifford Benjamin Brown (October 30, 1930 – June 26, 1956) was an American jazz trumpeter and composer. He died at the age of 25 in a car accident, leaving behind four years' worth of recordings. His compositions "Sandu", "Joy Spring", an ...
Jazz Festival in Wilmington, the Rehoboth Beach Jazz Festival, the Sea Witch Halloween Festival and Parade in Rehoboth Beach, the Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival, the Nanticoke Indian Pow Wow in Oak Orchard, Firefly Music Festival, and the Return Day Parade held after every election in Georgetown. In 2015, tourism in Delaware generated $3.1billion, which makes up five percent of the state's GDP. Delaware saw 8.5million visitors in 2015, with the tourism industry employing 41,730 people, making it the 4th largest private employer in the state. Major origin markets for Delaware tourists include
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sin ...
,
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...
, New York City, Washington, D.C., and
Harrisburg Harrisburg is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the 9th largest city and 15th largest municipality in ...
, with 97% of tourists arriving to the state by car and 75% of tourists coming from a distance of or less. Delaware is also home to two large sporting venues.
Dover Motor Speedway Dover Motor Speedway (formerly Dover Downs International Speedway and later Dover International Speedway) is a race track in Dover, Delaware. The track has hosted at least one NASCAR Cup Series race each year since 1969, including two per year ...
is a race track in Dover, and Frawley Stadium in Wilmington is the home of the
Wilmington Blue Rocks The Wilmington Blue Rocks are a Minor League Baseball team of the South Atlantic League and the High-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals. They are located in Wilmington, Delaware, and play their home games at Daniel S. Frawley Stadium. ...
, a Minor League Baseball team.


Education

In the early 1920s,
Pierre S. du Pont Pierre Samuel du Pont (; January 15, 1870 – April 4, 1954) was an American entrepreneur, businessman, philanthropist and member of the prominent du Pont family. He was president of DuPont from 1915 to 1919, and served on its board of directors ...
served as president of the state board of education. At the time, state law prohibited money raised from white taxpayers from being used to support the state's schools for black children. Appalled by the condition of the black schools, du Pont donated four million dollars to construct 86 new school buildings. Delaware was the origin of '' Belton v. Gebhart'' (1952), one of the four cases which were combined into ''
Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segrega ...
'', the
Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
decision that led to the end of officially segregated public schools. Significantly, ''Belton'' was the only case in which the state court found for the plaintiffs, thereby ruling that segregation is unconstitutional. Unlike many states, Delaware's educational system is centralized in a state Superintendent of Education, with local school boards retaining control over taxation and some curriculum decisions. This centralized system, combined with the small size of the state, likely contributed to Delaware becoming the first state, after completion of a three-year, $30million program ending in 1999, to wire every K-12 classroom in the state to the Internet. , the Delaware Department of Education had authorized the founding of 25 charter schools in the state, one of them being all-girls. All teachers in the State's public school districts are unionized. , none of the State's charter schools are members of a teachers union. One of the State's teachers' unions is Delaware State Education Association (DSEA).


Colleges and universities

* Delaware College of Art and Design *
Delaware State University Delaware State University (DSU or Del State) is a public historically black land-grant research university in Dover, Delaware. DSU also has two satellite campuses: one in Wilmington and one in Georgetown. The university encompasses four col ...
*
Delaware Technical & Community College Delaware Technical Community College (previously Delaware Technical & Community College, also known as DTCC, Delaware Tech, or Del Tech) is a public community college in the U.S. state of Delaware. Delaware Tech is an open admission institution ...
* Goldey-Beacom College *
University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 m ...
—Ranked 63rd in the U.S. and in top 201–250 in the world (
Times Higher Education World University Rankings The ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'' (often referred to as the THE Rankings) is an annual publication of university rankings by the ''Times Higher Education'' (THE) magazine. The publisher had collaborated with Quacquarell ...
2018) *
Widener University School of Law Widener University Delaware Law School (Delaware Law School and formerly Widener University School of Law) is a private law school in Wilmington, Delaware. It is one of two separate ABA-accredited law schools of Widener University. Widener Univ ...
*
Wilmington University Wilmington University (WilmU) is a private university with its main campus in Wilmington Manor, Delaware, with a New Castle street address. - It was founded in 1968 as Wilmington College by educator Dr. Donald E. Ross. As of 2016, the unive ...


Transportation

The transportation system in Delaware is under the governance and supervision of the
Delaware Department of Transportation The Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) is an agency of the U.S. state of Delaware. The Secretary of Transportation is Nicole Majeski. The agency was established in 1917 and has its headquarters in Dover. The department's responsibil ...
, also known as "DelDOT". Funding for DelDOT projects is drawn, in part, from the Delaware Transportation Trust Fund, established in 1987 to help stabilize transportation funding; the availability of the Trust led to a gradual separation of DelDOT operations from other Delaware state operations. DelDOT manages programs such as a Delaware
Adopt-a-Highway The Adopt-a-Highway program, and the very similar Sponsor-a-Highway, are promotional campaigns undertaken by U.S. states, provinces and territories of Canada, and some national governments outside North America to encourage volunteers to keep ...
program, major road route snow removal, traffic control infrastructure (signs and signals), toll road management, Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles, the Delaware Transit Corporation (branded as "
DART First State The Delaware Transit Corporation, operating as DART First State, is the only public transportation system that operates throughout the U.S. state of Delaware. DART First State provides local and inter-county bus service throughout the state and a ...
", the state government public transportation organization), among others. In 2009, DelDOT maintained 13,507 lane-miles, totaling 89 percent of the state's public roadway system, the rest being under the supervision of individual municipalities. This far exceeds the national average (20 percent) for state department of transportation maintenance responsibility.


Roads

One major branch of the U.S.
Interstate Highway System The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. Th ...
, Interstate95 (I-95), crosses Delaware southwest-to-northeast across New Castle County. Two
Auxiliary Interstate Highway Auxiliary Interstate Highways (also called three-digit Interstate Highways) are a supplemental subset of the freeways within the Interstate Highway System of the United States. Auxiliary routes are generally classified as spur routes, which con ...
routes are also located in the state. Interstate 495 (I-495) is an eastern bypass of Wilmington. Interstate 295 (I-295) is a bypass of Philadelphia which begins south of Wilmington. In addition to Interstate highways, there are six U.S. highways that serve Delaware: U.S.9, U.S.13, U.S.40, U.S.113, U.S.202, and U.S.301. There are also several state highways that cross the state of Delaware; a few of them include DE1, DE9, and DE404. U.S.13 and DE1 are primary north–south highways connecting Wilmington and Pennsylvania with Maryland, with DE1 serving as the main route between Wilmington and the
Delaware beaches The Delaware Beaches are located along the Atlantic Ocean in the eastern part of Sussex County, Delaware, which is in the southern part of the state. In addition to beaches along the ocean, the area offers many amenities, including restaurants, ...
. DE9 is a north–south highway connecting Dover and Wilmington via a scenic route along the
Delaware Bay Delaware Bay is the estuary outlet of the Delaware River on the northeast seaboard of the United States. It is approximately in area, the bay's freshwater mixes for many miles with the saltwater of the Atlantic Ocean. The bay is bordered inla ...
. U.S.40 is a primary east–west route, connecting Maryland with New Jersey. DE404 is another primary east–west highway connecting the
Chesapeake Bay Bridge The Chesapeake Bay Bridge (also known locally as the Bay Bridge) is a major twin bridges, dual-span bridge in the U.S. state of Maryland. Spanning the Chesapeake Bay, it connects the state's rural Eastern Shore of Maryland, Eastern Shore regio ...
in Maryland with the Delaware beaches. The state also operates three toll highways, the Delaware Turnpike, which is I-95, between Maryland and New Castle; the Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway, which is DE1, between Wilmington and Dover; and the U.S. 301 toll road between the Maryland border and DE1 in New Castle County. A bicycle route, Delaware Bicycle Route 1, spans the north–south length of the state from the Maryland border in Fenwick Island to the Pennsylvania border north of Montchanin. It is the first of several signed bike routes planned in Delaware. Delaware has about 1,450 bridges, 95 percent of which are under the supervision of DelDOT. About 30 percent of all Delaware bridges were built before 1950, and about 60 percent of the number are included in the
National Bridge Inventory The National Bridge Inventory (NBI) is a database, compiled by the Federal Highway Administration, with information on all bridges and tunnels in the United States that have roads passing above or below them. That is similar to the grade-cross ...
. Some bridges not under DelDOT supervision includes the four bridges on the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, which are under the jurisdiction of the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...
, and the
Delaware Memorial Bridge The Delaware Memorial Bridge is a dual-span suspension bridge crossing the Delaware River. The toll bridges carry Interstate 295 and U.S. Route 40 and is also the link between Delaware and New Jersey. The bridge was designed by the firm kn ...
, which is under the bi-state
Delaware River and Bay Authority The Delaware River and Bay Authority or DRBA is a bi-state government agency of the U.S. states of New Jersey and Delaware established by an interstate compact in 1962. The authority operates the Delaware Memorial twin suspension bridges, t ...
. It has been noted that the tar and chip composition of secondary roads in Sussex County makes them more prone to deterioration than are the
asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...
roadways in almost the rest of the state. Among these roads, Sussex (county road) 236 is among the most problematic.


Ferries

Three ferries operate in the state of Delaware: *
Cape May–Lewes Ferry The Cape May–Lewes Ferry is a ferry system in the United States that traverses a crossing of the Delaware Bay connecting North Cape May, New Jersey with Lewes, Delaware. The ferry constitutes a portion of U.S. Route 9 and is the final crossin ...
crosses the mouth of Delaware Bay between Lewes, Delaware, and
Cape May, New Jersey Cape May is a city located at the southern tip of Cape May Peninsula in Cape May County, New Jersey, United States, where the Delaware Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of the country's oldest vacation resort destinations, and part of ...
. * Woodland Ferry (a
cable ferry A cable ferry (including the terms chain ferry, swing ferry, floating bridge, or punt) is a ferry that is guided (and in many cases propelled) across a river or large body of water by cables connected to both shores. Early cable ferries often ...
) crosses the
Nanticoke River The Nanticoke River is a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay on the Delmarva Peninsula. It rises in southern Kent County, Delaware, flows through Sussex County, Delaware, and forms the boundary between Dorchester County, Maryland and Wicomico Coun ...
southwest of Seaford. *
Forts Ferry Crossing The Forts Ferry Crossing (formerly Delaware City–Salem Ferry and Three Forts Ferry Crossing) is a ferry system on the Delaware River that serves Forts DuPont and Delaware in Delaware and Fort Mott in Pennsville Township, New Jersey. It is ...
connects Delaware City with
Fort Delaware Fort Delaware is a former harbor defense facility, designed by chief engineer Joseph Gilbert Totten and located on Pea Patch Island in the Delaware River.Dobbs, Kelli W., et al. During the American Civil War, the Union used Fort Delaware as ...
and Fort Mott, New Jersey.


Rail and bus

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada. ...
has two stations in Delaware along the
Northeast Corridor The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is an electrified railroad line in the Northeast megalopolis of the United States. Owned primarily by Amtrak, it runs from Boston through Providence, New Haven, Stamford, New York City, Philadelphia, Wilmington ...
; the relatively quiet Newark Rail Station in Newark, and the busier Wilmington Rail Station in Wilmington. The Northeast Corridor is also served by
SEPTA The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is a regional public transportation authority that operates bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly 4 million people in five cou ...
's
Wilmington/Newark Line The Wilmington/Newark Line is a route of the SEPTA Regional Rail commuter rail system in the Philadelphia area. The line serves southeastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware, with stations in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, Wilmington, Delaware, and ...
of
Regional Rail Regional rail, also known as local trains and stopping trains, are passenger rail services that operate between towns and cities. These trains operate with more stops over shorter distances than inter-city rail, but fewer stops and faster serv ...
, which serves Claymont, Wilmington, Churchmans Crossing, and Newark. Two
Class I railroad In the United States, railroad carriers are designated as Class I, II, or III, according to annual revenue criteria originally set by the Surface Transportation Board in 1992. With annual adjustments for inflation, the 2019 thresholds were US ...
s,
Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31, ...
and
CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...
, provide freight rail service in northern New Castle County. Norfolk Southern provides freight service along the Northeast Corridor and to industrial areas in Edgemoor, New Castle, and Delaware City. CSX's
Philadelphia Subdivision The Philadelphia Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation in the U.S. states of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. The line runs from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, southwest to Baltimore, Maryland, along a forme ...
passes through northern New Castle County parallel to the Amtrak Northeast Corridor. Multiple
short-line railroad :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that ope ...
s provide freight service in Delaware. The
Delmarva Central Railroad The Delmarva Central Railroad is an American short-line railroad owned by Carload Express that operates of track on the Delmarva Peninsula in the states of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. The railroad operates lines from Porter, Delaware ...
operates the most trackage of the short-line railroads, running from an interchange with Norfolk Southern in Porter south through
Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidsto ...
, Harrington, and Seaford to Delmar, with another line running from Harrington to Frankford and branches from Ellendale to Milton and from Georgetown to Gravel Hill. The Delmarva Central Railroad connects with the
Maryland and Delaware Railroad The Maryland and Delaware Railroad Company is a Class III short-line railroad, formed in 1977 to operate several branch lines of the former Penn Central Railroad in both Maryland and Delaware, United States. These branches were omitted from the ...
, which serves local customers in Sussex County. CSX connects with the freight/
heritage Heritage may refer to: History and society * A heritage asset is a preexisting thing of value today ** Cultural heritage is created by humans ** Natural heritage is not * Heritage language Biology * Heredity, biological inheritance of physical ...
operation, the
Wilmington and Western Railroad The Wilmington and Western Railroad is a freight and heritage railroad in northern Delaware, operating over a former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) branch line between Wilmington and Hockessin. The railroad operates both steam and diesel l ...
, based in Wilmington and the
East Penn Railroad East Penn Railroad is a short-line railroad that operates a number of mostly-unconnected lines in the U.S. states of Pennsylvania and Delaware. Except for two industrial park switching operations, all are former Pennsylvania Railroad or Readin ...
, which operates a line from Wilmington to
Coatesville, Pennsylvania Coatesville is a city in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 13,350 at the 2020 census. Coatesville is approximately 39 miles west of Philadelphia. It developed along the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike beginning ...
. The last north–south passenger trains through the main part of Delaware was the
Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was na ...
's local Wilmington-Delmar train in 1965. This was a successor to the '' Del-Mar-Va Express'' and ''Cavalier'', which had run from Philadelphia through the state's interior, to the end of the Delmarva Peninsula until the mid-1950s. The
DART First State The Delaware Transit Corporation, operating as DART First State, is the only public transportation system that operates throughout the U.S. state of Delaware. DART First State provides local and inter-county bus service throughout the state and a ...
public transportation system was named "Most Outstanding Public Transportation System" in 2003 by the
American Public Transportation Association The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) is a nonprofit group of approximately 1,500 public and private sector member organizations that promotes and advocates for the interests of the public transportation industry in the United S ...
. Coverage of the system is broad within northern New Castle County with close association to major highways in Kent and Sussex counties. The system includes bus, subsidized passenger rail operated by Philadelphia transit agency SEPTA, and subsidized taxi and
paratransit Paratransit is the term used in North America, also known by other names such as community transport ( UK) for transportation services that supplement fixed-route mass transit by providing individualized rides without fixed routes or timetables. ...
modes. The paratransit system, consisting of a statewide door-to-door bus service for the elderly and disabled, has been described by a Delaware state report as "the most generous paratransit system in the United States". , fees for the paratransit service have not changed since 1988.


Air

, there is no scheduled air service from any Delaware airport, as has been the case in various years since 1991. Various airlines had served Wilmington Airport, the latest departure being
Frontier Airlines Frontier Airlines is a major ultra-low-cost U.S. airline headquartered in Denver, Colorado. It operates flights to over 100 destinations throughout the United States and 31 international destinations, and employs more than 3,000 staff. The ca ...
in April 2015. Delaware is centrally situated in the
Northeast megalopolis The Northeast megalopolis, also known as the Northeast Corridor, Acela Corridor, Boston–Washington corridor, or BosWash, is the world's largest megalopolis in terms of economic output and the second most populous megalopolis in the United Sta ...
region of cities along
I-95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the Can ...
. Therefore, Delaware
commercial airline An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in whic ...
passengers most frequently use
Philadelphia International Airport Philadelphia International Airport is the primary airport serving Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The airport served 19.6 million passengers annually in 2021, making it the 21st busiest airport in the United States. The airport is located from ...
(PHL), Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) and
Washington Dulles International Airport Washington Dulles International Airport , typically referred to as Dulles International Airport, Dulles Airport, Washington Dulles, or simply Dulles ( ), is an international airport in the Eastern United States, located in Loudoun County and F ...
(IAD) for domestic and international transit. Residents of Sussex County will also use Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY), as it is located less than from the Delaware border.
Atlantic City International Airport Atlantic City International Airport is a shared civil-military airport northwest of Atlantic City, New Jersey, in Egg Harbor Township, the Pomona section of Galloway Township and in Hamilton Township. The airport is accessible via Exit 9 o ...
(ACY),
Newark Liberty International Airport Newark Liberty International Airport , originally Newark Metropolitan Airport and later Newark International Airport, is an international airport straddling the boundary between the cities of Newark in Essex County and Elizabeth in Union Co ...
(EWR), and
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport , sometimes referred to colloquially as National Airport, Washington National, Reagan National Airport, DCA, Reagan, or simply National, is an international airport in Arlington County, Virginia, across ...
(DCA) are also within a radius of New Castle County. Other general aviation airports in Delaware include Summit Airport near Middletown, Delaware Airpark near Cheswold, and
Delaware Coastal Airport Delaware Coastal Airport is a public use airport in unincorporated Sussex County, Delaware, United States. Owned by the Sussex County Council, it is located two nautical miles (4  km) southeast of the central business district of Geo ...
near Georgetown.
Dover Air Force Base Dover Air Force Base or Dover AFB is a United States Air Force base under the operational control of the Air Mobility Command (AMC), located southeast of the city of Dover, Delaware. 436th AW is the host wing and runs the busiest and largest air ...
, one of the largest in the country, is home to the 436th Airlift Wing and the 512th Airlift Wing. In addition to its other responsibilities in the
Air Mobility Command Air Mobility Command (AMC) is a major command (MAJCOM) of the U.S. Air Force. It is headquartered at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, east of St. Louis, Missouri. Air Mobility Command was established on 1 June 1992, and was formed from elemen ...
, it serves as the entry point and
mortuary A morgue or mortuary (in a hospital or elsewhere) is a place used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification (ID), removal for autopsy, respectful burial, cremation or other methods of disposal. In modern times, corpses have cu ...
for U.S. military personnel (and some civilians) who die overseas.


Law and government

Delaware's fourth and current constitution, adopted in 1897, provides for executive, judicial and legislative branches.


Legislative branch

The
Delaware General Assembly The Delaware General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. state of Delaware. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the Delaware Senate with 21 senators and the Delaware House of Representatives with 41 representatives. It meets at Legisla ...
consists of a
House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ca ...
with 41 members and a
Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the e ...
with 21 members. It sits in Dover, the state capital. Representatives are elected to two-year terms, while senators are elected to four-year terms. The Senate confirms judicial and other nominees appointed by the governor. Delaware's U.S. Senators are
Tom Carper Thomas Richard Carper (born January 23, 1947) is an American politician and former military officer serving as the senior United States senator from Delaware, having held the seat since 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, Carper served in ...
(Democrat) and
Chris Coons Christopher Andrew Coons (born September 9, 1963) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Delaware since 2010. A member of the Democratic Party, Coons served as the county executive of New Castl ...
(Democrat). Delaware's single U.S. Representative is
Lisa Blunt Rochester Lisa LaTrelle Blunt Rochester (née Blunt; born February 10, 1962) also known by her initials LBR, is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the first woman and first A ...
(Democrat).


Judicial branch

The Delaware Constitution establishes a number of courts: * The
Delaware Supreme Court The Delaware Supreme Court is the sole appellate court in the United States state of Delaware. Because Delaware is a popular haven for corporations, the Court has developed a worldwide reputation as a respected source of corporate law decisions ...
is the state's highest court. * The
Delaware Superior Court The Delaware Superior Court, previously known as the Superior Court and Orphans' Court, is the state trial court of general jurisdiction in the state of Delaware. It has original jurisdiction over most criminal and civil cases (except for suits ...
is the state's trial court of general jurisdiction. * The
Delaware Court of Chancery The Delaware Court of Chancery is a court of equity in the American state of Delaware. It is one of Delaware's three constitutional courts, along with the Supreme Court and Superior Court. Since 2018, the court consists of seven judges. The c ...
deals primarily in corporate disputes. * The
Family Court Family courts were originally created to be a Court of Equity convened to decide matters and make orders in relation to family law, including custody of children, and could disregard certain legal requirements as long as the petitioner/plaintiff ...
handles domestic and custody matters. * The Delaware Court of Common Pleas has jurisdiction over a limited class of civil and criminal matters. Minor non-constitutional courts include the
Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or '' puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission (letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...
Courts and Aldermen's Courts. Significantly, Delaware has one of the few remaining Courts of Chancery in the nation, which has jurisdiction over equity cases, the vast majority of which are corporate disputes, many relating to
mergers and acquisitions Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspec ...
. The
Court of Chancery The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid a slow pace of change and possible harshness (or "inequity") of the common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over all matters of e ...
and the Delaware Supreme Court have developed a worldwide reputation for rendering concise opinions concerning corporate law which generally (but not always) grant broad discretion to corporate boards of directors and officers. In addition, the
Delaware General Corporation Law The Delaware General Corporation Law (Title 8, Chapter 1 of the Delaware Code) is the statute of the Delaware Code that governs corporate law in the U.S. state of Delaware. Adopted in 1899, the statute has since seen Delaware become the most i ...
, which forms the basis of the Courts' opinions, is widely regarded as giving great flexibility to corporations to manage their affairs. For these reasons, Delaware is considered to have the most business-friendly legal system in the United States; therefore a great number of companies are
incorporated in Delaware The Delaware General Corporation Law (Title 8, Chapter 1 of the Delaware Code) is the statute of the Delaware Code that governs corporate law in the U.S. state of Delaware. Adopted in 1899, the statute has since seen Delaware become the most imp ...
, including 60% of the companies listed on the
New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...
. Delaware was the last U.S. state to use
judicial corporal punishment The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...
, in 1952.


Executive branch

The executive branch is headed by the
Governor of Delaware A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
. The present governor is John Carney (Democrat), who took office January 17, 2017. The lieutenant governor is
Bethany Hall-Long Bethany A. Hall-Long (born November 12, 1963) is an American politician and a member of the Democratic Party. She has served as the 26th lieutenant governor of Delaware since 2017. Hall-Long previously served in the Delaware Senate from 2008 to ...
. The governor presents a " State of the State" speech to a
joint session A joint session or joint convention is, most broadly, when two normally separate decision-making groups meet, often in a special session or other extraordinary meeting, for a specific purpose. Most often it refers to when both houses of a bicam ...
of the Delaware legislature annually.


Counties

Delaware is subdivided into three counties; from north to south they are New Castle,
Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it fac ...
and
Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the Englis ...
. This is the fewest among all states. Each county elects its own legislative body (known in New Castle and Sussex counties as County Council, and in Kent County as Levy Court), which deal primarily in zoning and development issues. Most functions which are handled on a county-by-county basis in other states—such as court and law enforcement—have been centralized in Delaware, leading to a significant concentration of power in the Delaware state government. The counties were historically divided into hundreds, which were used as tax reporting and voting districts until the 1960s, but now serve no administrative role, their only current official legal use being in real estate title descriptions.


Politics

The Democratic Party holds a plurality of registrations in Delaware. Currently, Democrats hold all positions of authority in Delaware, as well as majorities in the state Senate and House. The Democrats have held the governorship since 1993, having won the last seven gubernatorial elections. Democrats presently hold all the nine statewide elected offices, while the Republicans last won any statewide offices in 2014,
State Auditor State auditors (also known as state comptrollers, state controllers, state examiners, or inspectors general) are fiscal officers lodged in the executive or legislative branches of U.S. state governments who serve as external auditors, financia ...
and
State Treasurer In the state governments of the United States, 48 of the 50 states have the executive position of treasurer. New York abolished the position in 1926; duties were transferred to New York State Comptroller. Texas abolished the position of Texa ...
. During the
First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...
and
Second Party System Historians and political scientists use Second Party System to periodize the political party system operating in the United States from about 1828 to 1852, after the First Party System ended. The system was characterized by rapidly rising levels ...
s, Delaware was a stronghold for the
Federalist The term ''federalist'' describes several political beliefs around the world. It may also refer to the concept of parties, whose members or supporters called themselves ''Federalists''. History Europe federation In Europe, proponents of de ...
and Whig Parties, respectively. After a relatively brief adherence to the Democratic Solid South following the
US Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
, Delaware became a Republican-leaning state from
1896 Events January–March * January 2 – The Jameson Raid comes to an end, as Jameson surrenders to the Boers. * January 4 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state. * January 5 – An Austrian newspaper reports that ...
through
1948 Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect. ** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...
, voting for losing Republicans
Charles Evans Hughes Charles Evans Hughes Sr. (April 11, 1862 – August 27, 1948) was an American statesman, politician and jurist who served as the 11th Chief Justice of the United States from 1930 to 1941. A member of the Republican Party, he previously was the ...
in 1916,
Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, holding o ...
in
1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...
, and
Thomas Dewey Thomas Edmund Dewey (March 24, 1902 – March 16, 1971) was an American lawyer, prosecutor, and politician who served as the 47th governor of New York from 1943 to 1954. He was the Republican candidate for president in 1944 and 1948: althoug ...
in 1948. During the second half of the 20th century, Delaware was a bellwether state, voting for the winner of every presidential election from
1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes ...
through
1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone on b ...
. Delaware's bellwether status came to an end when Delaware voted for
Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic nom ...
in
2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen fro ...
by 13%. Subsequent elections have continued to demonstrate Delaware's current strong Democratic lean:
John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party (Unite ...
carried the First State by 8% in
2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight ...
;
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
carried it by 25% and by 19% in his two elections of
2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
and
2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gathe ...
; and
Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States senat ...
carried it by 11% as she lost the Electoral College in
2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...
. In 2020, Delaware native (and Barack Obama's former Vice President and running mate) Joe Biden headed the Democratic ticket; he carried his home state by just shy of 19% en route to a national 4.5% win. The dominant factor in Delaware's political shift has been the strong Democratic trend in heavily urbanized New Castle County, home to 55% of Delaware's population. New Castle County has not voted Republican in a presidential election since
1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicentenn ...
, and has given Democrats over 60% of its vote in every election from 2004 on. In 1992, 2000, 2004, and 2016, the Republican presidential candidate carried both Kent and Sussex but lost by double digits each time in New Castle County, which was a large enough margin to tip the state to the Democrats. New Castle County also elects a substantial majority of the state legislature; 27 of the 41 state house districts and 14 of the 21 state senate districts are based in New Castle County. In a 2020 study, Delaware was ranked as the 18th hardest state for citizens to vote in.


Freedom of information

Each of the 50 states of the United States has passed some form of freedom of information legislation, which provides a mechanism for the general public to request information of the government. In 2011 Delaware passed legislation placing a 15 business day time limit on addressing freedom-of-information requests, to either produce information or an explanation of why such information would take longer than this time to produce. A bill aimed at restricting Freedom of Information Act requests, Senate Bill 155, was discussed in committee.


Taxation

Tax is collected by the Delaware Division of Revenue. Delaware has six different
income tax An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Ta ...
brackets, ranging from 2.2% to 5.95%. The state does not assess
sales tax A sales tax is a tax paid to a governing body for the sales of certain goods and services. Usually laws allow the seller to collect funds for the tax from the consumer at the point of purchase. When a tax on goods or services is paid to a gover ...
on consumers. The state does, however, impose a tax on the gross receipts of most businesses. Business and occupational license tax rates range from 0.096% to 1.92%, depending on the category of business activity. Delaware does not assess a state-level tax on real or personal property. Real estate is subject to county
property tax A property tax or millage rate is an ad valorem tax on the value of a property.In the OECD classification scheme, tax on property includes "taxes on immovable property or net wealth, taxes on the change of ownership of property through inherit ...
es, school district property taxes, vocational school district taxes, and, if located within an incorporated area, municipal property taxes.
Gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three elem ...
provides significant revenue to the state. For instance, the casino at Delaware Park Racetrack provided more than $100million to the state in 2010. In June 2018, Delaware became the first U.S. state to legalize
sports betting Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome. The frequency of sports bet upon varies by culture, with the vast majority of bets being placed on association football, American football, basket ...
following the Supreme Court ruling to repeal the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA).


Voter registration


Culture and entertainment


Festivals


Sports

;Professional teams As Delaware has no franchises in the major American professional sports leagues, many Delawareans follow either
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sin ...
or
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...
teams. In the WNBA, the
Washington Mystics The Washington Mystics are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Mystics compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Eastern Conference. The team was founded pri ...
enjoy a major following due to the presence of Wilmington native and University of Delaware product
Elena Delle Donne Elena Delle Donne (born September 5, 1989) is an American professional basketball player for the Washington Mystics of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Delle Donne played college basketball for the Delaware Blue Hens from 20 ...
. The University of Delaware's football team has a large following throughout the state, with the
Delaware State University Delaware State University (DSU or Del State) is a public historically black land-grant research university in Dover, Delaware. DSU also has two satellite campuses: one in Wilmington and one in Georgetown. The university encompasses four col ...
and Wesley College teams also enjoying a smaller degree of support. Delaware is home to
Dover Motor Speedway Dover Motor Speedway (formerly Dover Downs International Speedway and later Dover International Speedway) is a race track in Dover, Delaware. The track has hosted at least one NASCAR Cup Series race each year since 1969, including two per year ...
and
Bally's Dover Bally's Dover Casino Resort, formerly Dover Downs, is a hotel, casino, and racetrack complex in Dover, Delaware. It has a harness horse racing track, which is surrounded by Dover Motor Speedway, a concrete track used for NASCAR motor racing ...
. Dover Motor Speedway, also known as the ''Monster Mile'', is one of only 10 tracks in the nation to have hosted 100 or more
NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and ...
Cup Series races. Bally's Dover is a popular
harness racing Harness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait (a trot or a pace). They usually pull a two-wheeled cart called a sulky, or spider, or chariot occupied by a driver. In Europe, and less frequently in Austral ...
facility. It is the only co-located horse- and car-racing facility in the nation, with the Bally's Dover track located inside the Dover Motor Speedway track. Delaware is represented in rugby by the Delaware Black Foxes, a 2015 expansion club. Delaware has been home to
professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...
outfit
Combat Zone Wrestling Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) is an American independent wrestling promotion. In 1998, John Zandig and five of his students, Ric Blade, T.C.K, Lobo, Nick Gage and Justice Pain, along with trainer Jon Dahmer, began to run professional wrestling ...
(CZW). CZW has been affiliated with the annual Tournament of Death and ECWA with its annual Super8 Tournament. Delaware's official state sport is
bicycling Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from two ...
.


Sister state

Delaware's sister state in Japan is
Miyagi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture has a population of 2,305,596 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Miyagi Prefecture borders Iwate Prefecture to the north, Akita Prefecture to the nor ...
.


Delawareans

Prominent Delawareans include the
du Pont family The du Pont family () or Du Pont family is a prominent American family descended from Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739–1817). It has been one of the richest families in the United States since the mid-19th century, when it founded its f ...
of politicians and businesspersons, and current United States president Joe Biden, whose
family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Ideal ...
has resided in Delaware since his first marriage.


See also

* Index of Delaware-related articles * Outline of Delaware * '''' * ''''


Notes


References


Bibliography

*


External links


History

*


General

* *
Delaware Tourism homepage

Delaware Map Data

Energy & Environmental Data for Delaware

USGS real-time, geographic, and other scientific resources of Delaware



Delaware State Facts from USDA

2000 Census of Population and Housing for Delaware
U.S. Census Bureau * *
Delaware State Databases
��Annotated list of searchable databases produced by Delaware state agencies and compiled by the Government Documents Roundtable of the American Library Association {{authority control States and territories established in 1787 States of the East Coast of the United States States of the United States Mid-Atlantic states Northeastern United States Southern United States 1787 establishments in the United States Contiguous United States