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State Fact Sheets: Delaware

Population, Income, Food Insecurity, Education, and Employment
Federal Funds
Organic Agriculture
Farm Characteristics
Farm Financial Indicators
Top Commodities, Exports, and Counties
About the State Fact Sheets

Data updated January 17, 2012

Data Download
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Excel file DE-Fact-Sheet.xls
PDF file DE-Fact-Sheet.pdf

Population, Income, Food Insecurity, Education, and Employment

Population
  Rural * Urban * Total
Year
    1980 98,004 496,334 594,338
    1990 113,229 552,939 666,168
    2000 156,638 626,962 783,600
    2010 197,145 700,789 897,934

More information on Delaware population
County-level Population Data
Rural Population and Migration Briefing Room
• Contact John Cromartie, 202-694-5421.

Income
  Rural * Urban * Total
Per-capita income (2009 dollars)
    2008 34,514 42,133 40,484
    2009 34,434 41,034 39,597
    Percent change -0.2 -2.6 -2.2
 
Earnings per job (2009 dollars)
    2008 34,928 55,504 51,744
    2009 35,208 55,908 52,072
    Percent change 0.8 0.7 0.6
 
Poverty rate (percent)
    1979 13.6 11.5 11.9
    1989 10.7 8.3 8.7
    1999 10.5 8.9 9.2
    2010 (latest model-based estimates) 13.9 11.4 11.9

More information on Delaware poverty rates
County-level Poverty Data
Rural Income, Poverty, and Welfare Briefing Room
• See important notes about decennial and model-based intercensal poverty estimates
• Contact Tracey Farrigan, 202-694-5489

Household-level Food Insecurity and Very Low Food Security
  2002-04 Avg. 2005-07 Avg. 2008-10 Avg.
Percent of households
    Food insecure 6.8 8.6 9.7
    Very low food security 1.8 3.3 4.0

More information on Food Insecurity
Food Security in the United States Briefing Room
Definitions of Food Insecurity and Very Low Food Security
• Comparisons of prevalence rates of food insecurity between States must take account of the margins of error, which are sizeable for many States. Margins of error are published along with State prevalence rates in each year’s Household Food Security in the United States report.
• Contact Alisha Coleman-Jensen, 202-694-5456.

Education (Persons 25 and older)
  Rural * Urban * Total
Percent not completing high school
    1980 (Census) 42.9 28.9 31.4
    1990 (Census) 30.3 20.8 22.5
    2000 (Census) 23.5 15.7 17.4
    2006-2010 (ACS) 14.8 12.4 13.0
 
Percent completing high school only
    1980 (Census) 35.0 36.4 36.2
    1990 (Census) 37.3 31.7 32.7
    2000 (Census) 35.6 30.3 31.4
    2006-2010 (ACS) 37.4 30.6 32.2
 
Percent completing some college
    1980 (Census) 11.9 15.6 15.0
    1990 (Census) 19.4 24.3 23.4
    2000 (Census) 24.3 26.6 26.1
    2006-2010 (ACS) 26.6 27.4 27.2
 
Percent completing college
    1980 (Census) 9.9 19.1 17.5
    1990 (Census) 13.0 23.3 21.4
    2000 (Census) 16.6 27.4 25.0
    2006-2010 (ACS) 21.2 29.6 27.7

More information on Delaware education
County-level Education Data
Rural Labor and Education Briefing Room
• Contact Alexander Marré, 202-694-5338

Employment
  Rural * Urban * Total
Total number of jobs
    2008 100,414 449,128 549,542
    2009 98,187 431,609 529,796
 
Percent employment change
    2007-2008 -1.2 -1.5 -1.4
    2008-2009 -3.8 -4.8 -4.6
    2009-2010 -0.7 -3.1 -2.6
 
Unemployment rate (percent)
    2009 8.0 8.0 8.0
    2010 8.3 8.5 8.5

More information on Delaware unemployment rates
County-level Unemployment and Median Household Income Data
Rural Labor and Education Briefing Room
• Contact Lorin Kusmin, 202-694-5429

Federal Funds, FY 2010
  Rural * Urban * Total
Federal funding, dollars per person
   All Federal funds 9,353 10,190 10,006
 
Federal funding by purpose (function codes)
      Agriculture and natural resources 70 85 82
      Community resources 1,341 2,300 2,089
      Defense and space 186 871 720
      Human resources 120 139 135
      Income security 7,288 5,530 5,916
      National functions 349 1,265 1,064
 
Federal funding by type of payments (object codes)
      Grants 1,185 1,612 1,518
      Direct loans 239 365 337
      Guaranteed/insured loans 1,046 2,157 1,912
      Retirement/disability payments 4,619 3,046 3,392
      Other direct payments to
      individuals
1,731 1,499 1,550
      Direct payments, not to
      individuals
65 118 106
      Procurement contracts 82 494 403
      Salaries and wages 385 899 786

Total does not include Statewide funds undistributed at the county level.

More information on Federal Funds
Program Function and Object Code Definitions
Federal Funds and Development Policy Briefing Room
Federal Funds Data
• Contact Richard Reeder, 202-694-5360


* The terms “rural” and “urban” here refer to data for nonmetro and metro areas, a county-level classification defined by the Office of Management and Budget. We use the June 2003 version of nonmetro and metro areas because it reflects conditions at the beginning of the decade. See Measuring Rurality: What is Rural? for a discussion of differences between metro-nonmetro categories and the Census Bureau’s rural-urban classification.
 
More information on socioeconomic conditions
Rural Emphasis Page
• Contact Tim Parker, 202-694-5435.


Organic Agriculture

  2006 2007 2008
Number of certified operations 1 4 4
Crops (acres) 70 124 124
Pasture & rangeland (acres) 47 40 40
Total acres 117 164 164

More information on organic agriculture
Organic Production Data
Organic Agriculture Briefing Room
• Contact Catherine Greene, 202-694-5541.


Farm Characteristics

1997, 2002 and 2007 Census of Agriculture
 
  1997 2002 2007
Approximate total land area (acres) 1,250,954 1,250,281 1,249,176
    Total farmland (acres) 589,107 540,080 510,253
        Percent of total land area 47.1 43.2 40.8
 
        Cropland (acres) 491,489 457,201 432,773
            Percent of total farmland 83.4 84.7 84.8
            Percent in pasture 2.3 1.5 2.0
            Percent irrigated 15.2 21.2 24.0
 
            Harvested Cropland (acres) 469,920 433,105 409,468
 
        Woodland (acres) 63,765 53,729 46,126
            Percent of total farmland 10.8 9.9 9.0
            Percent in pasture 5.2 9.7 4.5
 
        Pastureland (acres) 6,202 6,540 6,773
            Percent of total farmland 1.1 1.2 1.3
 
        Land in house lots, ponds,
        roads, wasteland, etc. (acres)
27,651 22,610 24,581
            Percent of total farmland 4.7 4.2 4.8
 
Conservation practices
        Farmland in conservation or
        wetlands reserve programs
        (acres)
2,605 6,792 9,221
 
Average farm size (acres) 221 226 200
 
Farms by size (percent)
            1 to 99 acres 63.8 66.0 70.1
            100 to 499 acres 25.2 23.0 20.3
            500 to 999 acres 5.8 5.1 3.9
            1000 to 1,999 acres 3.5 3.7 3.9
            2,000 or more acres 1.7 2.2 1.8
 
Farms by sales (percent)
            Less than $9,999 32.3 36.8 41.0
            $10,000 to $49,999 17.8 12.8 15.7
            $50,000 to $99,999 6.7 7.5 4.5
            $100,000 to $499,999 23.7 29.0 11.0
            More than $500,000 19.5 13.8 27.8
 
Tenure of farmers
        Full owner (farms) 1,691 1,597 1,661
            Percent of total 63.3 66.8 65.2
 
        Part owner (farms) 726 618 630
            Percent of total 27.2 25.8 24.7
 
        Tenant owner (farms) 254 176 255
            Percent of total 9.5 7.4 10.0
 
Farm organization
        Individuals/family, sole
        proprietorship (farms)
2,176 2,015 2,006
            Percent of total 81.5 84.3 78.8
 
        Family-held corporations
        (farms)
240 199 244
            Percent of total 9.0 8.3 9.6
 
        Partnerships (farms) 216 136 210
            Percent of total 8.1 5.7 8.2
 
        Non-family corporations (farms) 14 13 38
            Percent of total 0.5 0.5 1.5
 
        Others - cooperative, estate or
        trust, institutional, etc. (farms)
25 28 48
            Percent of total 0.9 1.2 1.9
 
Characteristics of principal farm operators
        Average operator age (years) 53.4 54.8 55.4
        Percent with farming as their
         primary occupation
59.9 69.4 59.1
        Men 2,354 2,062 2,137
        Women 317 329 409
 

More information on farm characteristics
Census of Agriculture
• Contact NASS Customer Service, 1-800-727-9540.


Farm Financial Indicators

Farm income and value added data
  2009 2010
 
Number of farms 2,480 2,480
 
  Thousands $
       Final crop output 253,241 219,886
+     Final animal output 770,775 829,102
+     Services and forestry 152,239 146,383
=   Final agricultural sector output 1,176,255 1,195,371
 
-      Intermediate consumption outlays 857,084 879,596
+     Net government transactions 7,225 15,707
=   Gross value added 326,396 331,482
 
-      Capital consumption 70,135 71,345
 
=   Net value added 256,261 260,137
 
-    Factor payments 69,802 71,926
         Employee compensation (total hired labor) 36,201 34,921
         Net rent received by nonoperator landlords 1,008 6,044
         Real estate and nonreal estate interest 32,593 30,961
 
=   Net farm income 186,459 188,211
 

More information on farm income
Farm Income Data
Farm Income and Costs Briefing Room
• Contact Timothy Park, 202-694-5446.

Farm balance sheet
 
• Estimation of State-level Balance Sheets has been suspended. See the Farm Balance Sheet data page for more information.
 


Top Commodities, Exports, and Counties

Top 5 agriculture commodities, 2010
  Value of receipts
thousand $
Percent of state total
farm receipts
Percent of US value
1. Broilers 786,094 73.9 3.3
2. Corn 70,312 6.6 0.2
3. Soybeans 59,767 5.6 0.2
4. Greenhouse/nursery 18,200 1.7 0.1
5. Dairy products 16,376 1.5 0.1
 
All commodities 1,063,068   0.3
 

More information on Delaware's top agriculture commodities
Leading commodities by cash receipts in Excel.
Other cash receipts data.
• Contact Ted Covey, 202-694-5344.

Top 5 agriculture exports, estimates, FY 2010
  Rank among states Value
million $
1. Poultry and products 15 103.0
2. Soybeans and products 28 36.7
3. Wheat and products 37 21.1
4. Feed grains and products 34 18.9
5. Vegetables and preparations 27 11.3
 
Total export value 39 210.0
 

More information on agricultural exports
State Export Data
Agricultural Trade Briefing Room
• Contact Nora Brooks, 202-694-5211.

Top 5 counties in agricultural sales 2007
  Percent of state total receipts Thousands $
1. Sussex County 78.4 848,942
2. Kent County 17.4 188,390
3. New Castle County 4.2 45,703
4.      
5.      
 
State total   1,083,035
 

More information on agricultural sales
Census of Agriculture
• Contact NASS Customer Service, 1-800-727-9540.




Data Sources

Prepared by Economic Research Service, USDA, Washington, DC.

For more information, contact: Tim Parker
Web administration: webadmin@ers.usda.gov
Updated date: January 17, 2012