Why So Few Americans Live In Delaware As Compared To Pennsylvania, Maryland, or New Jersey

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As a native Delawarian, if asked why Delaware had such a small population, my answer would probably be just because it is so small. When compared to states nearby it is quite similar in density. The only thing Delaware really lacks in terms of population compared to its neighbors is a major city.

If someone asked me on the street "Why is Delaware so under populated?" I would probably just answer "Because everyone forgets Delaware exists?". 🤣

When I went to college in Utah and people found out I was from Delaware, a typical response was "Dela-where?". I even had one person ask me what country it's in.

Did the math, by population density delaware is actually more dense than my home state (PA), so technically the main reason why is that its 13 times smaller.

The reason Delaware has such a low population is simply because it is so small. The population density is actually quite high at about 522/sq mile making it the 6th most densely populated state.

Im in DE ,10 minutes from New Jersey 10 minutes from Pennsylvania 10 minutes from Maryland

Delaware could easily be home to 4 to 5 million people if Wilmington had developed at the same rate as Philadelphia from 1820 to around 1950. But for reasons not well-known to me, Philadelphia stole Wilmington's economic thunder by around 1750, despite Wilmington being a port city closer to the Atlantic. Maybe because Philadelphia lies at the convergence of the Schuylkill and the Delaware rivers? So Wilmington, and Delaware in general, have been playing catch-up ever since.

Great video, but no part of Delaware is within the Appalachian Mountains. The highest elevation is about 448 feet and entire state is very flat and within the Atlantic Coastal Plain.

Great video. As a life long Delaware resident I have 1 correction. Lewes is pronounced Lew-iss.

Fun Fact: Prior to 1986, Metropolis from DC Comics, was canonically set in Delaware across the Delaware Bay from Gotham City NJ. Since then, the locations are kept vague. Smallville was in MD prior to 86 right across the DE border.

girl so many people have been moving here and we hate it 😭😭 the beaches are always packed now

Went to Rehoboth this year and was blown away how perfect the village is. We will go back. From NY

500,000 people live above the Canal (the Canal is the dividing line between "upper" and the not so much slower anymore "lower" Delaware). If you travel in most places in Northern New Castle County above the Canal, there are really few places for large scale developments to happen due to all the suburban sprawl along Kirkwood Highway between Wilmington and Newark, along 202/Philadelphia Pike heading from Wilmington to the PA burbs, and 13 heading down from Wilmington towards New Castle. Its going to be interesting to see what's going to happen to Smyrna/Middletown in 20 years because so much Development is going on down there because there really isn't that much more land to Develop in the Wilmington/Newark area. Smyrna is about to BLOW up...and I can honestly see the cities of Middletown, Smyrna, and Dover basically merging to becoming one combined CSA metro in the next 20 to 30 years. Not to mention the beaches. The beach towns of Lewis, Rehoboth, Dewey, and Bethany population increase 12 fold during the summer. It's a nightmare driving down there during the summer beach season, and so many more homes are being build along those areas. But yeah, it has a small population, but its a lot more Densely populated than most other places in the US. And it really is a nice place to live. You are less than 3 hours from NYC, DC, The Pocono Mountains, Beaches, Amish Country, Philly, Baltimore and everything in-between, which is why I do believe New Castle County is one of the most underrated places to live in the United States of America.

I’ve lived in DE all my life and the reason it has a low population compared to other states is it’s small size. It’s actually quite congested here and it keeps getting worse because they just keep building on land that used to be farmland and woods. I wish people would stop moving here

I'm Canadian, but I would love to live in Delaware. It would make me so happy to live in this Beautiful state.

As a Pennsylvanian who has lived partly in Delaware (and has family down there), it didn't help Delaware's case that it kept getting punted between its various neighbors during the colonial period. Christina was founded by the Swedes (and Finns) as part of New Sweden, and when the Dutch of New Netherlands booted out the Swedes not long after its founding, only to have the Dutch be booted out by the English, you have a setup that it's land that's constantly changing hands. And that theme won't get any different later on. Virginia and Maryland both claimed portions of Delaware for themselves until the three counties got given to William Penn to be part of Pennsylvania. And arguably the three Lower Counties (as they were called at the time) likely would have integrated into Pennsylvania and the history of Delaware would have ended there--except Pennsylvania was founded by Quakers... and their governor William Penn decided to go back to Europe to drum up interest in settling Pennsylvania. The population of the new colony (and the three Lower Counties) couldn't agree with one another--so the Assembly that Penn set up decided to stop meeting since every Assembly meeting turned into long drawn out arguments, which meant that they also decided to stop collecting taxes. William Penn soon noticed that his money supply of taxes wasn't flowing and he wrote to the Assembly to fix the situation. The Assembly, not meeting, ghosted William Penn on paying him the taxes he was owed as Proprietor--and eventually William Penn responded by hiring a Puritan from Massachusetts to come down and settle the matter, which only backfired as the entire colony revolted to the Puritan's attempts to force the Assembly to meet, pass laws, and collect taxes. The Puritan eventually gave up when even the Assembly joined in the "we refuse to bow to your authority" protests that were having. They colonists complained to Penn for foisting a Puritan on their Quaker haven, Penn apologized but shifted the blame back on them for not working with him, so he was forced to drastic measures by calling in a Puritan. The Assembly promised to do better... and then they didn't, and William Penn eventually died in debtor's prison due to all the unpaid taxes from Pennsylvania colonists driving him into debt. I always consider it rather ironic that PA has statues of William Penn around (especially in Philly)--it's almost like a warning to anyone who tries to think they can control Pennsylvania: look what we did to our own founder, sure we like the guy now that he's dead and gone and can't order us around anymore. But look what we did to him: we drained his coffers and starved him of income until he died in debt and in prison--and don't think we won't do the same to you if you think about telling us what to do if we don't want to do it. That always seems to be the underlying sentiment there... All through this back and forth, the Lower three Counties watched the Upper three Counties pull all this and slowly and quietly started getting the idea that they'd rather not be associated with the Upper Counties moving forward. This eventually became formalized in 1704 when the Lower Counties got their own separate assembly instead of alternating locations as they had been prior, though they remained under the control of the Governor of PA for the rest of the Colonial period. So considering that Delaware, first a Swedish settlement, then a Dutch, then an English, then considered a pawn of Virginia, Maryland, and finally Pennsylvania--never really had a chance to establish itself. We should consider Delaware as the Korea of the Mid-Atlantic Colonies. Surrounded by larger neighbors and constantly fought for control over by those larger neighbors--and thus never allowed to really grow and develop on its own until the USA formed. Knowing that, it also really explains why Delaware was so keen to be the first state to adopt the Constitution--it ensured they wouldn't be controlled any longer by their neighbors.

The 12-mile circle was a surprising fact. Thanks for posting.

That sea level comparison between Florida and Delaware is something I will have to remember

Super relevant because according to DC Comics Metropolis is located in Delaware, across the bay from Gotham City (which is in New Jersey)