Delaware's crime rate
There were 26,046 crimes reported in Delaware in 2019, the most recent year crime data is available. Adjusted for population, Delaware's crime rate is 2,675 crimes per 100,000 residents.
How does Delaware compare?
Crime is more common in Delaware than it is on average nationwide. By comparison, the national crime rate of 2,489 per 100,000 people is 7% lower. Of the 50 states, 20 have a higher crime rate than Delaware.
Crime rates nationwide range from 1,361 per 100,000 in Maine to 3,945 per 100,000 in New Mexico, the states with the lowest and highest crime rates, respectively.
Here are the crime rates for all 50 states.
What types of crimes are being committed?
The FBI's crime rate includes seven crime categories: three property crimes -- larceny, burglary, and motor vehicle theft, and four violent crimes -- aggravated assault, robbery, rape, and murder.
Property crime
The vast majority of crimes in America are property crimes, accounting for 85% of total crimes in 2019. This share was roughly the same in Delaware, with property crimes accounting for 84% of all crimes reported in the state.
There were 21,931 property crimes reported in Delaware in 2019, or 2,252 per 100,000 residents. This is higher than the national rate of 2,110 property crimes per 100,000 people and is the 22nd highest rate of the 50 states.
Larceny
Larceny is by far the most common type of property crime. The 5,086,096 reported incidents nationwide in 2019 accounted for 73% of all property crime. Delaware's rate of 1,783 reported larceny incidents per 100,000 residents is higher than the nationwide rate of 1,550 per 100,000 and is the 15th highest among states.
Burglary
An estimated 2,968 break-ins were reported in Delaware in 2019, or 305 per 100,000 state residents -- the 23rd lowest rate among states. For reference, there were an estimated 1,117,696 break-ins nationwide, or 341 break-ins per 100,000 people.
Motor vehicle theft
Across the U.S., there were 721,885 reported motor vehicle thefts in 2019, a rate of 220 per 100,000 people. Delaware's rate of 165 motor vehicle thefts per 100,000 residents was lower than this national rate and the 17th lowest rate compared to all states.
Violent crime
Violent crimes make up a small share of crimes nationwide. In Delaware, violent crimes account for 16% of total crimes, versus 15% nationwide.
While Delaware has the 30th lowest total crime rate of all states, it has the 36th lowest violent crime rate. The state’s violent crime rate of 423 per 100,000 people is higher than the national rate of 379 per 100,000. There were 4,115 violent crimes reported to Delaware law enforcement agencies in 2019.
Aggravated assault
Aggravated assault is by far the most common type of violent crime. Nationwide, there were 821,182 aggravated assaults in 2019, accounting for 66% of violent crimes across the country. In Delaware, 2,967 aggravated assaults were reported in 2019. Delaware's rate of aggravated assault of 305 per 100,000 people is higher than the national rate of 250 per 100,000 and is the 15th highest of all states.
Robbery
Robbery is the second most common type of violent crime in America. There were 790 robberies reported in Delaware in 2019, or 81 robberies for every 100,000 residents. This is roughly the same as the national rate of 82 robberies per 100,000 people, and the 12th highest robbery rate among states.
Rape
There were 310 reported rapes in 2019 in Delaware. The state's rate of rape of 31.8 per 100,000 residents is lower than the national rate of 42.6 per 100,000 people. Delaware has the seventh lowest rate of rape.
Murder
In 2019, there were 48 murders reported to law enforcement in Delaware. The state’s murder rate of 4.9 per 100,000 residents is roughly the same as the national rate of 5.0 per 100,000. Delaware's murder rate is the 22nd highest in the country.
Where are these crimes being committed?
Because crime is influenced by local circumstances, crime levels vary considerably within each state. Often a state’s dense urban areas will have higher crime rates than its rural areas. Even in a state with an exceptionally low crime rate, there is often at least one area where crime rates exceed the nation.
City with the highest crime rate in Delaware
The city with the highest total crime rate in Delaware is Seaford, with a crime rate of 6,824 per 100,000 residents. This excludes cities with a population below 5,000 and cities with incomplete FBI crime reports.
While the city may have the highest total crime rate in the state, the rate is driven by property crime. Therefore, Seaford is likely less dangerous than other cities in the state where more violent crimes are committed.
The most dangerous city in the state is Wilmington. This city has the highest violent crime rate in Delaware, at 1,498 per 100,000 residents, more than triple the statewide rate.
Crime over time
National historical trend
The FBI provides access to crime data by state dating back to 1960. This 60-year span, can be divided into three periods. Crime skyrocketed between 1960 and 1980, with the crime rate more than tripling in just 20 years from 1,887 crimes per 100,000 Americans to 5,950 crimes per 100,000 Americans.
Crime remained high in the 1980s and reached its second highest peak in 1991. Since that year, crime has fallen steadily nationwide, reaching its current rate of 2,489 per 100,000, a 58% decline in 28 years.
Delaware's historical trend
In 1960, Delaware's crime rate was 2,161 crimes per 100,000 residents. Crime peaked in the state in 1980 at 6,777 per 100,000, an increase of 214%.
Crime changes 2014-2019
Over the five years since 2014, the nationwide total crime rate has decreased by 15.2%, but this change varied dramatically between states. In New Hampshire, for example, the crime rate decreased by 37.0%, the largest decline of any state. The largest increase was in Alaska, where crime rose by 11.3% between 2014 and 2019.
With a decrease of 22.9%, Delaware's crime rate has fallen faster than the country as a whole. The crime rate declined in 48 states over this time period, but in most of them, it declined slower than in Delaware.
How Delaware has compared to other states historically
Since 1960, Delaware has typically had a higher crime rate than the majority of states. Over these 60 years, the state has been among the 10 states with the highest crime rates in 12 of them, but never among the states with the lowest crime rates.
All cities in Delaware
Here are all Delaware cities ranked by total crime rate. For a city to be included, it must have a complete 2019 FBI crime report and population of 5,000 or more. Click any bar or city name to see more about crime in that city.
Click here to see a list of all city crime pages.
Click here to see a list of all state crime pages.
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