New Castle County

The median income of households in New Castle County, Delaware was $91,166. An estimated 4.5% of households had income below $10,000 a year and 15% had income of $200,000 or more.

An estimated 79.1% of households received earnings. An estimated 31.2% of households received Social Security and an estimated 27.6 % of households received retirement income other than Social Security. The average income from Social Security was $26,778. These income sources are not mutually exclusive; that is, some households received income from more than one source.

In 2020-2024, 10.1 % of people were in poverty. An estimated 13.7% of children under 18 were below the poverty level, compared with 7.8% of people 65 years old and over. An estimated 9.6% of people 18 to 64 years were below the poverty level.

In 2020-2024, 9.8 % of households received SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). An estimated 51.2% of households that received SNAP had children under 18, and 40.8% of households that received SNAP had one or more people 60 years and over. An estimated 42% of all households receiving SNAP were families with a female householder and no spouse present.

Among the civilian noninstitutionalized population in New Castle County, Delaware in 2020-2024, 94.1% had health insurance coverage and 5.9% did not have health insurance coverage. Private coverage was 73.2% and public coverage was 34.8%, respectively. The percentage of children under the age of 19 with no health insurance coverage was 3.5%.

In 2020-2024, New Castle County, Delaware had a total population of 577,961 - 297,537 (51.5%) females and 280,424 (48.5%) males. The median age was 39.3 years. An estimated 21.2% of the population was under 18 years, 33.3% was 19 to 44 years, 25.5% was 45 to 64 years, and 17.1 % was 65 years and older.

In 2020-2024, there were 224,173 households in New Castle County, Delaware. The average household size was 2.51 people.

Married-couple households made up 44.3% of the households in New Castle County, Delaware while cohabiting couple households made up 7.2% of households. Female householders with no spouse or partner present were 30.8% of all households, while 17.8% of households had male householders with no spouse or partner present. Some households had one person, as 12.3% of households were male householders living alone, and 17.3% were female householders living alone, for a total of 29.6% of all households.

In New Castle County, Delaware, 28.8% of all households had one or more people under the age of 18; 31.3% of all households had one or more people 65 years and over.

In 2020-2024, an estimated 87.2% of the people living in New Castle County, Delaware were U.S. natives. 44.3% of the New Castle County, Delaware population were living in the state where they were born.

Approximately 12.8% of New Castle County, Delaware residents in 2020-2024 were foreign-born. 55.3% of foreign-born were naturalized U.S. citizens and an estimated 62 % entered the country before the year 2010.

Foreign-born residents of New Castle County, Delaware come from different parts of the world. The bar graph below displays the percentage of foreign-born from each world region of birth in 2020-2024 for New Castle County, Delaware.

Among people at least five years old living in New Castle County, Delaware in 2020-2024, 17.3 % spoke a language other than English at home. Spanish was spoken by 8.3% of people at least five years old; 6% reported that they did not speak English "very well."

In 2020-2024, 88.9 % of the people at least one year old living in New Castle County, Delaware were living in the same house one year earlier.

In 2020-2024, 92.6 % of people 25 years and over had at least graduated from high school and 39.7% had a bachelor's degree or higher. An estimated 7.4% did not complete high school.

The total school enrollment in New Castle County, Delaware was 140,648 in 2020-2024. Nursery school enrollment was 8,834 and kindergarten through 12th grade enrollment was 89,205. College or graduate school enrollment was 42,609.

In New Castle County, Delaware, among the civilian noninstitutionalized population in 2020-2024, 12.9 % reported a disability. The likelihood of having a disability varied by age - from 5.4% of people under 18 years old, to 10.6% of people 18 to 64 years old, and to 31.2% of those 65 and over.

In New Castle County, Delaware, 62.3 % of the population 16 and over were employed; 34.3% were not currently in the labor force.

An estimated 81.7% of the people employed were private wage and salary workers; 14.2% were federal, state, or local government workers; and 3.9 % were self-employed in their own (not incorporated) business.

In 2020-2024, the civilian employed population 16 years and older in New Castle County, Delaware worked in the following industries:

An estimated 68.6% of New Castle County, Delaware workers drove to work alone in 2020-2024, and 7.3% carpooled. Among those who commuted to work, it took them on average 25.3 minutes to get to work.

In 2020-2024, New Castle County, Delaware had a total of 236,079 housing units. Of these housing units, 74.3% were single-family houses either not attached to any other structure or attached to one or more structures (commonly referred to as "townhouses" or "row houses"). 23.5% of the housing units were located in multi-unit structures, or those buildings that contained two or more apartments. 2% were mobile homes, while any remaining housing units were classified as "other," which included boats, recreational vehicles, vans, etc.

8.8% of the housing inventory was comprised of houses built since 2010, while 10.8% of the houses were first built in 1939 or earlier. The median number of rooms in all housing units in New Castle County, Delaware was 6.2 rooms, and of these housing units 67.7% had three or more bedrooms.

In 2020-2024, New Castle County, Delaware had 224,173 housing units that were occupied or had people living in them, while the remaining 11,906 were vacant. Of the occupied housing units, the percentage of these houses occupied by owners (also known as the homeownership rate) was 69% while renters occupied 31%. The average household size of owner-occupied houses was 2.62 and in renter-occupied houses it was 2.25.

3.8% of householders of these occupied houses had moved into their house since 2021, while 10.5% moved into their house in 1989 or earlier. Households without a vehicle available for personal use comprised 7.5% and another 20% had three or more vehicles available for use.

The following chart provides the primary fuel used to heat houses in New Castle County, Delaware:

In 2020-2024, the median property value for owner-occupied houses in New Castle County, Delaware was $352,200.

Of the owner-occupied households, 67.2 % had a mortgage. 32.8% owned their houses "free and clear," that is without a primary mortgage or loan on the house. The median monthly housing costs for owners with a mortgage was $1,882 and for owners without a mortgage it was $616.

For renter-occupied houses, the median gross rent for New Castle County, Delaware was $1,448. Gross rent includes the monthly contract rent and any monthly payments made for electricity, gas, water and sewer, and any other fuels to heat the house.