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Place dossier plate
SheetDE-SMYRNA-DE · Smyrna, DE 13,031 pop · income 50th pct
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 Smyrna
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Smyrna on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Mountain Home · lowest
42,103
Mountain Home · lowest
42,103 median HH income
24.4% of the leader · rank #1
Naalehu · near
70,469
Naalehu · near
70,469 median HH income
40.8% of the leader · rank #2
Greenfield · near
70,469
Greenfield · near
70,469 median HH income
40.8% of the leader · rank #3
Conway Springs · near
70,469
Conway Springs · near
70,469 median HH income
40.8% of the leader · rank #4
Meadowview Es… · near
70,469
Meadowview Es… · near
70,469 median HH income
40.8% of the leader · rank #5
Smyrna · this city
70,473
Smyrna · this city
70,473 median HH income
40.8% of the leader · rank #6
Hockessin · highest
172,695
Hockessin · highest
172,695 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 Smyrna 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: 13,031.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Smyrna - the verdict
Smyrna ranks in the 50th percentile for household income and the 23rd percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
50th
percentile, household income
60th
percentile, home value
78th
percentile, median rent
23rd
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: Smyrna, DE
Delaware's Smyrna is a small town, with 13,031 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $70,473 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 8.4%. Home values in Smyrna run a median of $273,400, and the median resident age is 34.3 years. About 22.2% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 62.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 31 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 81% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 2450.3 crimes per 100,000 residents, near the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score).
Delaware tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Delaware scores 99.8 (Near Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. 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. 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 Smyrna'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 comparison shortlist to reported crime to work and mobility to population change to schools and households to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Smyrna, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, annual population history, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Smyrna?
Within Delaware, the closest population matches are Hockessin (13,608 residents, $172,695 income); Milford (12,193 residents, $55,265 income); Pike Creek Valley (11,992 residents, $93,896 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Tomball, TX (13,032 residents); D'Iberville, MS (13,033 residents); Blytheville, AR (13,026 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 Smyrna?
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 2450.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 7% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
What does the journey to work look like in Smyrna?
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 80.2%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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 +379 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +2.9% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 31 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Smyrna?
The NCES join finds 6 public schools within the city match. 22.2% 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
6
Bachelor's degree+
22.2%
Poverty estimate
8.4%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
How far does income reach against housing in Smyrna?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 8.4%, 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. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
Household income
$70,473
Home value
$273,400
Value / income
3.9×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Above median income · poverty 8.4% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
99.8 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Delaware average
F
City profile score · Smyrna, DE
39/100
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.
Household income C-
$70,473
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate D
8.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share D
22.2%
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.
Violent crime F
486 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Smyrna profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 50/100 (C-) · $70,473
Poverty rate: 46/100 (D) · 8.4%
Bachelor's+ share: 41/100 (D) · 22.2%
Cost of living: 41/100 (D) · 99.8 index
Violent crime: 17/100 (F) · 486 /100k
Where Smyrna sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Smyrna'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 - Smyrna highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Smyrna, DE (this city): home $273,400, crime 2,450/100k
Tomball, TX : home $306,400, crime 2,237/100k
Blytheville, AR : home $101,200, crime 5,780/100k
Mountain Home, AR : home $160,200, crime 2,532/100k
Sharon, PA : home $79,100, crime 2,117/100k
Milford, DE : home $274,600, crime 4,441/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Smyrna compare to other US cities?
Smyrna measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income50% higher than other cities
Home value60% pricier than other cities
Median rent78% pricier than other cities
Safety23% 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, Smyrna ranks #18 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 Smyrna 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 Smyrna near the bottom of Delaware's cities
Among the 79 Delaware cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Smyrna ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Smyrna only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#53 of 77
31st percentile in Delaware
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 79
0th percentile in Delaware
Median Home Value
#45 of 77
42nd percentile in Delaware
Poverty Rate
#22 of 79
72nd percentile in Delaware
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#56 of 79
29th 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
50th percentile nationally for median household income · 23rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Smyrna's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Smyrna'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 Smyrna's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$273,40040th percentilemore affordable than 40% 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
Smyrna's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,325 of 15,516
More affordable than 33% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,866 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.9×, Smyrna sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,325 of 15,516 and #1,866 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$70,473Smyrna, DE median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Smyrna, 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 Smyrna, DE.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)22.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)8.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)62.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
13,031
Median Income
$70,473
Median Home Value
$273,400
Median Age
34.3
Poverty Rate
8.4%
Labor force participation
62.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
22.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2450.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
485.6
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1964.7
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
6
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Smyrna's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
12,961 residents
2021
13,168 residents
2022
13,261 residents
2023
13,318 residents
2024
13,336 residents
2025
13,340 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
31
housing units authorized
Single-Family
12
detached homes
Multifamily
19
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
164
66
98
$16.9M
2020
186
65
121
$18.7M
2021
115
50
65
$12.1M
2022
32
22
10
$3.4M
2023
11
3
8
$1.2M
2024
31
12
19
$5.8M
Permit volume decreased 81% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
80.2%
Carpool
6.1%
Public Transit
0.8%
Walk
0.9%
Work from Home
11.5%
Based on 6,238 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 Smyrna. 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 Smyrna 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 Smyrna sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Smyrna 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.