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Place dossier plate
SheetDE-WILMINGTON-DE · Wilmington, DE 71,124 pop · income 28th pct · 145 tracts
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Wilmington
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Wilmington on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Dothan · lowest
55,052
Dothan · lowest
55,052 median HH income
47.8% of the leader · rank #1
Ingalls Park · near
55,268
Ingalls Park · near
55,268 median HH income
48.0% of the leader · rank #2
Sylvan Beach · near
55,268
Sylvan Beach · near
55,268 median HH income
48.0% of the leader · rank #3
Buffalo Gap · near
55,268
Buffalo Gap · near
55,268 median HH income
48.0% of the leader · rank #4
Wilmington · this city
55,269
Wilmington · this city
55,269 median HH income
48.0% of the leader · rank #5
Ponca City · near
55,270
Ponca City · near
55,270 median HH income
48.0% of the leader · rank #6
Middletown · highest
115,252
Middletown · highest
115,252 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Wilmington on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 71,124.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Wilmington - the verdict
Nationally, Wilmington sits in the 28th percentile for household income and the 6th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
28th
percentile, household income
49th
percentile, home value
78th
percentile, median rent
6th
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Wilmington, DE
Delaware's Wilmington is a small city, with 71,124 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $55,269 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 18.7%. Typical homes in Wilmington are valued around $224,500, and the median resident age is 37.0 years. Educational attainment runs 33.1% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 59.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 304 residential building permits were authorized in Wilmington (Rapid Growth), up 46% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Wilmington's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 4285.8 incidents per 100,000 residents, above the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Delaware tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Delaware at 99.8 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Near Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,560 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $243 across Delaware, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. The average commute for Wilmington workers runs 19.7 minutes, with 62.2% driving alone and 14.5% working from home. Natural-hazard exposure scores 91.3 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Very High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Wilmington's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from population change to comparison shortlist to reported crime to housing and income to work and mobility to within-city variation to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Wilmington, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, matched public-school count.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Population change
Is Wilmington growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +2,623 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +3.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 304 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Which cities make useful reference points for Wilmington?
Within Delaware, the closest population matches are Dover (39,491 residents, $58,336 income); Newark (30,309 residents, $71,373 income); Middletown (24,071 residents, $115,252 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Dothan, AL (71,118 residents); St. Charles, MO (71,048 residents); Blaine, MN (71,261 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Wilmington?
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 4285.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 88% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
What can 145 Census tracts reveal inside Wilmington?
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
PlainCities matches 145 Census tracts to this city.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Wilmington?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 18.7%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
Household income
$55,269
Home value
$224,500
Value / income
4.1×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What does the journey to work look like in Wilmington?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 62.2%. The reported mean trip to work is 19.7 minutes.
Public transit
8.4%
Work from home
14.5%
Drive alone
62.2%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 34,006 workers age 16+.
What does the education layer cover for Wilmington?
The NCES join finds 51 public schools within the city match. 33.1% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
Matched public schools
51
Bachelor's degree+
33.1%
Poverty estimate
18.7%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Below median income · poverty 18.7% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
99.8 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Delaware average
F
City profile score · Wilmington, DE
28/100
5 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Bachelor's+ share C+
33.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Cost of living D
99.8 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Household income F
$55,269
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
18.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
1,127 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Wilmington profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 63/100 (C+) · 33.1%
Cost of living: 41/100 (D) · 99.8 index
Household income: 28/100 (F) · $55,269
Poverty rate: 16/100 (F) · 18.7%
Violent crime: 0/100 (F) · 1,127 /100k
Where Wilmington sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Wilmington's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Wilmington highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Wilmington, DE (this city): home $224,500, crime 4,286/100k
Dothan, AL : home $186,600, crime 3,678/100k
St. Charles, MO : home $280,800, crime 1,022/100k
Blaine, MN : home $327,500, crime 1,500/100k
Rogers, AR : home $278,000, crime 1,616/100k
Johnson City, TN : home $238,000, crime 2,705/100k
Waukesha, WI : home $286,600, crime 989/100k
Dover, DE : home $248,500, crime 7,082/100k
Newark, DE : home $357,600, crime 2,308/100k
Middletown, DE : home $399,500, crime 1,668/100k
How does Wilmington compare to other US cities?
Where Wilmington sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income28% higher than other cities
Home value49% pricier than other cities
Median rent78% pricier than other cities
Safety6% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Delaware alone, Wilmington ranks #24 of 31 Delaware cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Wilmington against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Delaware only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Delaware-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Wilmington near the bottom of Delaware's cities
Among the 79 Delaware cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Wilmington ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Wilmington only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#70 of 77
9th percentile in Delaware
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 79
0th percentile in Delaware
Median Home Value
#61 of 77
21st percentile in Delaware
Poverty Rate
#4 of 79
95th percentile in Delaware
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#40 of 79
49th percentile in Delaware
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Delaware only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
28th percentile nationally for median household income · 6th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Wilmington's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Wilmington's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Wilmington's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$224,500Among the most affordablemore affordable than 51% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Wilmington's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,878 of 15,516
More affordable than 30% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#316 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 4.1×, Wilmington sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,878 of 15,516 and #316 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$55,269Wilmington, DE median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Wilmington, DE median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Wilmington, DE.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)33.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)18.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)59.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
71,124
Median Income
$55,269
Median Home Value
$224,500
Median Age
37.0
Poverty Rate
18.7%
Labor force participation
59.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
33.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
4285.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
1127.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3158.8
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Schools
Total Schools
51
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Wilmington's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
70,889 residents
2021
70,833 residents
2022
71,844 residents
2023
72,189 residents
2024
73,179 residents
2025
73,512 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Rapid Growth
Total Permits (2024)
304
housing units authorized
Single-Family
177
detached homes
Multifamily
127
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
4.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
208
26
182
$25.6M
2020
205
15
190
$36.1M
2021
525
9
516
$66.8M
2022
44
20
24
$6.1M
2023
299
17
282
$35.0M
2024
304
177
127
$86.3M
Permit volume increased 46% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
19.7 minutes
Drive Alone
62.2%
Carpool
7.1%
Public Transit
8.4%
Walk
5.9%
Work from Home
14.5%
Other
1.9%
Based on 34,006 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Delaware statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $243
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Delaware at $243 (electricity about $115 , water and sewer about $48 ).
These are Delaware statewide averages, not a meter reading for Wilmington. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Delaware's BEA cost-of-living index is 99.8 (Near Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Wilmington is $1,560/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Delaware statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 91.3 / 100 (Very High).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Delaware statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Wilmington sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Wilmington compares to similar-size Delaware cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.