Sometimes, things are not what they seem at first glance. That’s what happened to this writer in early October when I took a whirlwind two-day tour of Delaware, America’s oldest state. Reality has a way of colliding headfirst with the data.
Thanks to research by the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia, we learned that Delaware is growing its base of 25-to-44-year-olds at a rate that is much faster than the country as a whole. In Sussex County, the southernmost of Delaware’s three counties, the rate of growth among this demographic cohort ranks among the highest in the nation.
Why is this happening? Many factors contribute to this resurgence of younger workers in the First State — not the least of which is the fact that Gen Z and Millennial workers often don’t see Delaware the same way many C-suite executives do.
For a deeper dive into this dichotomy, consider the data. Moscow, Idaho-based Lightcast recently reported that Delaware ranked No. 8 on the 2025 Talent Attraction Scorecard. And then UVA’s Hamilton Lombard found much the same thing: “I think the demographic data points that I looked at line up well with Lightcast ranking Delaware as one of the most attractive states in the country for talent,” he told me after analyzing U.S. Census Bureau data of population change from 2020 to 2024 and comparing it to 2010-2014. “By a number of measures, Delaware looks more demographically like Florida, Texas or the Mountain West states than the rest of the Northeast.”
Digging deeper into the data, he found that the high levels of migration to Delaware meant that it had faster growth than its neighboring states (Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland and the District of Columbia.) and the U.S. in recent decades. “A combination of factors have helped Delaware remain an attractive place for people to move to in the Mid-Atlantic,” Lombard says. “While Delaware is located in the middle of the Northeast Corridor, the largest concentration of population and wealth in the country, it offers a lower cost of living. According to the 2024 Census American Community Survey, its home prices are the lowest along the East Coast between North Carolina and Maine. Delaware has no sales tax; its property tax rates are lower than most nearby states; and its income tax rates are competitive with most of its neighbors. Delaware also has a relatively healthy mix of industries, including manufacturing, which has seen some growth in recent years.”
Natural Amenities Beckon Movers
Lombard cited other factors driving people to Delaware: the state’s central location on the East Coast; its overall low cost of living; and its attractiveness to remote workers. All of these factors came together so that by 2019, “twice the number of people were moving to Delaware than in the early 2010s,” he notes. “Migration to Delaware spiked during the pandemic and last year remained higher than in 2019.”
Among 25-to-44-year-olds, the change is even more pronounced. Since 2020, that population has grown by nearly 14,000 — up from 5,279 in the first four years of the 2010s. “In Sussex County in south Delaware, its miles of beaches on its eastern shore and access to the Chesapeake Bay on its western side have helped attract thousands of younger adults since the pandemic, driving most of the state’s growth in its population ages 25 to 44,” the UVA demographer says. “This lines up well with national trends, which since 2020 have seen the younger adult population grow at twice the national rate in counties with high levels of natural amenities.”
He cites two more statistics that bolster the case for why younger workers are drawn to Delaware:
According to the 2024 Census American Community Survey, Delaware had the sixth-largest increase in incomes for residents ages 25 to 44 over the past five years.
Among residents under 25, Delaware had the largest increase in incomes in the country over the past five years.
This migration of young people to Delaware is occurring even as some high-profile corporate executives announce their exit from the state. Coinbase announced in November that it would leave Delaware and incorporate in another state following a legal dispute over cryptocurrency. Also announcing their departure this year were Elon Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX, along with Dillard’s, Dropbox, Roblox and fintech company Affirm.
Despite this exodus, a total of just 28 companies exited Delaware in 2025, while nearly 250,000 new firms elected to incorporate in the state. Delaware even made moves to benefit these companies by passing SB 21 with bipartisan support. The act aims to revamp corporate law structures by simplifying the rules around transactions when it comes to directors, officers and controlling stockholders and limiting shareholder access to internal company records. Gov. Matt Meyer enthusiastically signed the act into law.
In 2024, Delaware incorporated 81% of U.S. IPOs and is now home for more than 2 million registered companies — more than double the state’s population. More than a third of the state’s budget — over $2 billion — comes from the corporate franchise sector.
From Gen Z to Baby Boomers
Becky Harrington, interim president and CEO of the Delaware Prosperity Partnership, says Delaware emerged as a preferred destination for nomadic residents during the pandemic. “A lot of professionals who already had homes in southern Delaware or maybe were in the D.C. or Baltimore metro area and weren’t sure when they were going to return to office — a lot of those people chose to come here and stay,” she says. “That put Delaware on the map. Everyone saw that this wasn’t just a beach community. This is a place where you can work, play and live. WalletHub ranked us as the best state for remote work and part of that was because of our connectivity. We’ve always had strong internet connection throughout the state. Plus, people like the coastal, more relaxed vibe that southern Delaware offers, especially on the east side of Sussex County. The growth in building permits and plans for residential and commercial properties began to accelerate in 2020.”
“By a number of measures,
Delaware looks more demographically like Florida, Texas or the Mountain West states than the rest of the Northeast.”
— Hamilton Lombard, Demographer, Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, UVA
Andrew Harton, economic development director for Sussex County, says the county has been growing swiftly for a decade. “It took off just after COVID-19 with a spike. We saw a really big spike in people moving to Sussex County in 2021,” he says. “The main driver of that growth has been retirees. Baby Boomers started moving here for a variety of reasons.”
That growth pushed the county’s population from 237,378 in 2020 to 271,134 in 2024. Meanwhile, New Castle County, the largest of Delaware’s three counties with twice the population of Sussex, has grown by just 0.4% since the last census.
“A favorable tax environment, low property taxes, no sales tax and a lower cost of living are the main reasons why people move here,” says Harton. “When you look at where they are coming from, many come from New Jersey, New York and DC. We pull from these surrounding areas. That is also where we get a lot of our tourists. We are a big beach community. Rehoboth Beach is the Nation’s Summer Capital.”
And it’s not just young people. “Baby Boomers entering retirement age are looking for a place to retire, kick back and relax. Sussex County makes sense for them,” says Harton. “They are familiar with the area. The tax rates are great.”
Because of this migration wave, Sussex now leads Delaware in job growth too. “If you look at the Delaware Department of Labor’s annual labor report in September, Sussex County for the third year in a row had the highest percentage of job gains of all three counties in the state,” Harton says. “Last year was the first year that Sussex added more jobs than Kent County and New Castle County — and New Castle is almost double our size.”
Harrington says the migration boom is becoming conversation topic No. 1 with corporate investors. “When we ask site selectors why their company is considering Delaware for a project, they say, ‘Because we know the talent is there. We know we can find the employees we need in Delaware.’ ”
Now, Delaware has the hard data to back it up.
