Delaware

Settlement & growth (pre-1960)

Long before European arrival, the land now called Delaware was home to the Lenape (also known as the Delaware) people in the north and the Nanticoke in the south. These Algonquian-speaking nations lived in small, dispersed villages, relying on fishing, hunting, and agriculture along the Delaware River and Atlantic coast. Their population was severely reduced by disease and displacement following European contact, with the Lenape gradually pushed westward by colonial expansion.

The first European settlers were the Dutch, who established a short-lived trading post at Zwaanendael (near present-day Lewes) in 1631, but it was destroyed by the Lenape. The Swedes followed, founding the colony of New Sweden in 1638 at Wilmington (then called Fort Christina). These early Scandinavian settlers were farmers and fur traders, and their influence lingers in place names and a few architectural remnants. The Dutch conquered the colony in 1655, only to lose it to the English in 1664. Under English rule, Delaware became part of the Penn family’s holdings, though it maintained a separate assembly.

The 18th century saw a wave of English and Scots-Irish settlers moving down from Pennsylvania and Maryland. The Scots-Irish, in particular, were drawn by cheap land and religious freedom, settling in the interior of New Castle County and in the central part of the state around Dover. They were largely small farmers and tradesmen. At the same time, the plantation economy of the lower counties (now Kent and Sussex) relied heavily on enslaved African labor, brought primarily from the Chesapeake region. By the time of the American Revolution, Delaware had a substantial Black population, mostly enslaved, concentrated in the agricultural south around Georgetown and Seaford.

The 19th century brought industrialization to northern Delaware. The DuPont family, French immigrants who arrived in 1800, established a gunpowder mill on the Brandywine Creek near Wilmington, which grew into a global chemical empire. This drew waves of Irish immigrants in the 1840s and 1850s to work in the mills and on the railroad, followed by Italian and Polish immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These groups settled in ethnic neighborhoods in Wilmington, such as the city’s Little Italy and the Polish enclave around St. Hedwig’s Church. Meanwhile, the state’s Black population, though legally free after the Civil War, remained largely rural and impoverished in the south, with many working as sharecroppers or laborers.

The Great Migration (1910-1970) saw tens of thousands of Black Americans leave the rural South for industrial jobs in the North. Delaware, with its proximity to Philadelphia and its own manufacturing base, was a destination. Many settled in Wilmington and its suburbs, transforming the city’s racial composition. By 1960, Wilmington was nearly 40% Black, a dramatic shift from its pre-war demographics. The state’s overall population grew steadily, reaching 446,292 by 1960, but remained heavily concentrated in New Castle County.

Modern era (post-1965)

The 1965 Hart-Cellar Act fundamentally reshaped Delaware’s demographics, though the effects were slower and more muted than in larger states. The state’s foreign-born population remains relatively low at 4.8%, but its composition has diversified. The most significant post-1965 immigrant group has been Hispanic, primarily from Mexico and Central America, who began arriving in the 1980s and 1990s. They were drawn by jobs in agriculture (especially poultry processing in Sussex County), construction, and landscaping. Today, the Hispanic population stands at 10.7%, with the largest concentrations in Georgetown and Millsboro in Sussex County, where they form a visible and growing community, and in the urban neighborhoods of Wilmington.

East/Southeast Asian immigration has been smaller but notable. A community of Chinese and Korean immigrants, many working in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, has settled in the suburbs of northern New Castle County, particularly around Newark and Hockessin. The Indian subcontinent population, at 2.2%, is similarly concentrated in these same professional suburbs, drawn by jobs in finance, healthcare, and technology. These groups are highly educated and have integrated into the region’s middle and upper-middle class.

Domestic migration has been equally transformative. Since the 1970s, Delaware has experienced steady in-migration from the Rust Belt and the Northeast Corridor, particularly from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. Retirees and second-home buyers have flocked to the coastal areas, especially the beach towns of Rehoboth Beach, Bethany Beach, and Lewes, driving rapid population growth in Sussex County. This wave is predominantly white and affluent, and has shifted the state’s political balance, making the once-solidly Democratic southern counties more competitive. Suburbanization has also been a major force, with the population of New Castle County spreading outward from Wilmington into sprawling developments in Middletown and Bear, areas that have seen explosive growth since the 1990s.