Cost of Living

Delaware’s affordable housing, low taxes and the thriving job market in diverse industries make Delaware a first-rate place to live.

Calculate Your Cost of Living in Delaware

Moving to the Mid-Atlantic region? Then think about Delaware? The Delaware Prosperity Partnership cost-of-living calculation tool helps you find the answer you need to make an informed decision. The index uses current Census Bureau data to compare cost of living between two locations. Click to indicate the salary, where you are moving to and where you are moving from to learn how the cost of living in Delaware applies to you personally.

We take out the guesswork and make it easy for you to make an informed decision about the cost of living in Delaware as compared to anywhere else you may be considering moving. Whether you’re thinking of moving for a change in lifestyle or for an exciting job opportunity, our Cost-of-Living calculator can help you decide if Delaware is a better fit for you than other places. It calculates the average home or rent price and average food cost for every county in the US.
A Cost-of-Living Index is a measurement that compares the cost of living in various locations. It uses a reliable formula to calculate how much it costs each year for a family to buy the same goods and services in any given location. Now, with our COLI application you can compare the cost of living across multiple cities.

Use our comparison tool to see how the cost of living in Delaware stacks up to your current city. You will be pleasantly surprised how much further your dollar goes in Delaware,

Northern Delaware

View of buildings along 11th Street at sunset in downtown Wilmin

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Central Delaware

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Southern Delaware

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How Delaware’s Cost of Living Compares

The cost-of-living index for the Wilmington metro area is consistently lower than other urban markets on the East Coast, while the index for central and southern Delaware is consistently less than the U.S. average.

Delaware residents enjoy a median household income that’s eight percent higher than the national average, good, high-wage job opportunities in lucrative industries, a diverse range of affordable housing, and a low tax burden no state property taxes and sales tax. What’s more, since 2007, employment in Delaware has grown by 11% — the fastest pace in the Mid-Atlantic.

Cost of living can vary drastically across the United States, especially across locations in the Northeast. Delaware’s cost of living is better than most of the eastern coast. Delaware is one of only two states with neither personal nor state income taxes, and Delaware property taxes are the 4th lowest in the U.S. The cost-of-living calculator compares the cost of basic expenses in two locations to determine who has a lower cost of living. In the United States, Delaware is one of the few states that has no sales tax on clothing or food and has one of the country’s lowest property taxes. The Cost-of-Living Calculator uses a unique formula from C2ER Cost of Living index that provides an accurate comparison between any two cities in the US. The resulting cost of living index accurately compares these costs between cities.

• Index and average prices are based on data gathered between Q12021 – Q42021. For more information on the methodology, please visit C2ER Cost of Living Index website (www.coli.org)