The 10 Poorest Cities In Delaware For 2023


The poorest places in Delaware are Laurel and Wilmington for 2023 based on Saturday Night Science.

Like all states, Delaware has certain places that are going on hard times. These Delaware places have an above-average percentage of people living in poverty, out of work, or not making as much as they should be.

Even as the economy continues to improve, it’s worthwhile to look at the places in each state struggling to make ends meet. So we set our sites on locating the poorest places in Delaware.

To do so, we used Saturday Night Science to analyze the newest Census data from the American Community Survey for the 22 cities in Delaware with more than 2,000 people.


Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table


Here are the ten poorest places in Delaware for 2023:

  1. Laurel
  2. Wilmington
  3. Georg
  4. Milford
  5. Dover
  6. Newark
  7. Delmar
  8. Seaford
  9. Harrington
  10. Bridgeville

What’s the poorest city in Delaware? According to the facts, Laurel is the poorest place in Delaware for 2023.

This isn’t a commentary on the people that live there or the vibrant culture and traditions of these places. Instead, it’s just a look at the facts.

For more Delaware reading, check out:


Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table


The 10 Poorest Cities In Delaware For 2023

1. Laurel

Laurel, DE

Source: Wikipedia User Bwave at English Wikipedia | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 3,886
Rank Last Year: 1 (No Change)
Median Income: $34,615 (lowest)
Poverty Rate: 40.0% (highest)
People In Poverty: 1,555
More on Laurel: Data | Crime

Laurel, unfortunately, ranks as the poorest place in Delaware thanks to combination of low pay and and a lack of jobs.

The city of 3,886 people averages the lowest median household income in Delaware and the highest poverty rate. At the very least, the cost of living ranks in the bottom 15% of place in the state, so things like housing are relatively affordable.

2. Wilmington

Wilmington, DE

Source: Wikipedia User Tim Kiser (User:Malepheasant) | CC BY-SA 2.5
Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Population: 70,926
Rank Last Year: 2 (No Change)
Median Income: $49,354 (5th lowest)
Poverty Rate: 24.0% (3rd highest)
People In Poverty: 17,031
More on Wilmington: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living

The second poorest city in Delaware is Wilmington.

The city ranks as having the 3rd highest incidence of poverty and 5th lowest median household income. However, the unemployment rate ‘only’ ranks as the 3rd highest in the First State.

3. Georg

Source: Public Domain
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 7,079
Rank Last Year: 3 (No Change)
Median Income: $42,204 (2nd lowest)
Poverty Rate: 18.5% (6th highest)
People In Poverty: 1,311
More on Georg: Data

Placing as the third poorest city, Georg’s median income ranks as the 2nd lowest.

And that’s a sign that there’s a relatively substantial jump in the quality of the economy from second to third place on our list. The poverty rate is 18.524470416362306% and ranks near the bottom of places in the state.

But what makes up for the relatively low incomes of the city is its low cost of living. The income you do make here goes further than in most parts of the First State.

4. Milford

Milford, DE

Source: Wikipedia User Tim Kiser (w:User:Malepheasant) | CC BY-SA 2.5
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 11,249
Rank Last Year: 6 (Up 2)
Median Income: $47,849 (3rd lowest)
Poverty Rate: 17.7% (7th highest)
People In Poverty: 1,994
More on Milford: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living

Milford ranks as the fourth poorest place in Delaware.

The town ranks as having the 3rd lowest median household income and the 7th highest incidence of poverty in the state.

That being said, there’s still a ton of cultural diversity in the city as it hosts many events throughout the year.

5. Dover

Dover, DE

Source: Wikipedia User Tim Kiser (w:User:Malepheasant) | CC BY-SA 2.5
Overall SnackAbility

4
/10

Population: 38,940
Rank Last Year: 4 (Down 1)
Median Income: $51,073 (6th lowest)
Poverty Rate: 20.5% (5th highest)
People In Poverty: 7,969
More on Dover: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living

The fifth poorest city in Delaware is Dover.

The city ranks as having the 6th lowest median income in the state. However, an extremely low cost of living prevents a good number of folks from living in poverty as the poverty rate only ranks as the 5th highest in Delaware.

Still not the best news for Dover.

6. Newark

Newark, DE

Source: Wikipedia User | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

7.5
/10

Population: 31,393
Rank Last Year: 9 (Up 3)
Median Income: $61,646 (11th lowest)
Poverty Rate: 26.1% (2nd highest)
People In Poverty: 8,185
More on Newark: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living

Newark ranks as the sixth poorest place in the First State.

It ranks as having the 2nd highest incidence of poverty and the 4th highest unemployment rate.

7. Delmar

Delmar, DE

Source: Flickr User Ken Lund | CC BY-SA 2.0
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 2,241
Rank Last Year: 5 (Down 2)
Median Income: $49,130 (4th lowest)
Poverty Rate: 14.8% (10th highest)
People In Poverty: 332
More on Delmar:

Delmar places as the seventh poorest city in Delaware.

The city of over 2,241 ranks as having the 10th highest incidence of poverty in the state. However, it has a very low cost of living which helps to pay the bills each month.

8. Seaford

Seaford, DE

Source: Wikipedia User Levelhead at English Wikipedia | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 7,852
Rank Last Year: 7 (Down 1)
Median Income: $55,162 (8th lowest)
Poverty Rate: 16.1% (8th highest)
People In Poverty: 1,266
More on Seaford: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living

Seaford ranks as the eighth poorest city in Delaware.

The big issue for the town is the unemployment rate which ranks as the 2nd highest in the state.

9. Harrington

Harrington, DE

Source: Wikipedia User Lee Cannon from Bayville aka West Fenwick, DE, USA | CC BY-SA 2.0
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 3,730
Rank Last Year: 8 (Down 1)
Median Income: $62,639 (12th lowest)
Poverty Rate: 21.0% (4th highest)
People In Poverty: 784
More on Harrington: Data | Crime

Harrington couldn’t stay out of the top ten poorest places in Delaware; it ranks number 9.

While the median income is the 12th lowest, there are a substantial number of people that live below the poverty line. Overall, Harrington ranks as having the 4th most people living in poverty of all the places we analyzed in Delaware.

10. Bridgeville

Bridgeville, DE

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 2,499
Rank Last Year: 10 (No Change)
Median Income: $53,276 (7th lowest)
Poverty Rate: 12.8% (12th highest)
People In Poverty: 320
More on Bridgeville: Crime

And rounding out the top ten poorest cities in Delaware is Bridgeville.

The city of 2,499 people ranks in the bottom 20% for both median income and poverty rate in the First State.

Methodology: How We Determined The Poorest Places In Delaware for 2023

The first thing that comes to most people’s minds when they think about determining the poorest places is to simply the poverty rate. That is, the number of people living below a federally established level of income for a household of a certain size.

However, we don’t think that one statistic wholly encompasses what it means to be one of the “poorest places”. So we used Saturday Night Science to look at this set of criteria from the newly released 2017-2021 American Community Survey:

  • Poverty Level
  • Median Household Income

After we collected the data for all 22 places with more than 2,000 people in Delaware, we ranked each place from 1 to 22 for each of the criteria, with 1 being the poorest.

We then averaged all the rankings for a place into a “Poor Score” with the place having the lowest overall Poor Score, Laurel, crowned the “Poorest Place In Delaware For 2023”.

This report has been updated for 2023, which is our tenth time ranking the poorest places in Delaware.

Summary: The Poorest Cities In Delaware For 2023

Like we said earlier, when we set out to identify the poorest places in Delaware, we weren’t sure what we’d encounter, but it ended up being some of the best places to live in Delaware.

When you look at the data, the cities and places mentioned above meet the criteria for being at the very bottom of the income ladder for everyone that lives there.

If you’re curious enough, here are the richest cities in Delaware, according to data:

    Richest: Townsend
    2nd Richest: New Castle
    3rd Richest: Middl

For more Delaware reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Poorest Places To Live In Delaware

Rank City Population Poverty Rate Median Income People In Poverty
1 Laurel 3,886 40.0% $34,615 1,555
2 Wilmington 70,926 24.0% $49,354 17,031
3 Georg 7,079 18.5% $42,204 1,311
4 Milford 11,249 17.7% $47,849 1,994
5 Dover 38,940 20.5% $51,073 7,969
6 Newark 31,393 26.1% $61,646 8,185
7 Delmar 2,241 14.8% $49,130 332
8 Seaford 7,852 16.1% $55,162 1,266
9 Harrington 3,730 21.0% $62,639 784
10 Bridgeville 2,499 12.8% $53,276 320
11 Elsmere 6,167 15.8% $66,833 972
12 Milton 3,224 11.2% $59,531 361
13 Smyrna 12,619 13.8% $63,794 1,740
14 Millsboro 6,542 7.9% $57,632 519
15 Ocean View 2,556 12.4% $80,225 317
16 Camden 3,786 4.2% $65,023 157
17 Clayton 3,845 9.0% $91,346 344
18 Selbyville 2,806 5.6% $77,974 158
19 Lewes 3,257 7.0% $78,125 229
20 Middl 23,001 7.3% $93,750 1,689
21 New Castle 5,482 2.9% $83,651 159
22 Townsend 2,671 1.4% $142,115 37
About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.

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