60 facts about Delaware and its businesses

By Kathy Canavan

How much does your attorney make? How many people who live in Delaware are not U.S. citizens? Is your commute longer than average? Keep reading.

1. Delaware boasted 22 video stores in 2010, but none by 2013.
2. Perdue’s Milford plant can harvest 140 birds a minute – from live chicken to wrapped chicken parts.
3. How many CEOs work in Delaware? 190.
4. Delawareans spend an average of 25.2 minutes commuting to work.
5. There are 820 elementary and secondary school administrators in Delaware, and their average salary is $107,883.
6. Delaware has one farm per every 378 residents.
7. Pettinaro now owns a large chunk of the retail and office space in upscale Greenville – 108,150 square feet of retail, 225,526 square feet of offices plus 766 apartments in Greenville Place. Petinnaro owns Greenville Center, Powder Mill Square, Greenville Professional Center, Barley Mill House, 20 Montchanin plus the Shell Station.
8. Women run 455 Delaware farms.
9. Delaware’s home foreclosure rate is the highest in the nation – one in every 566 housing units was in some stage of foreclosure in July. Kent County has the highest rate – one in 375.
10. The average salary for Delaware lawyers was $152,332 last year.
11. Both all-time record temperatures for the state were established in Millsboro – 100 degrees Fahrenheit on July 21, 1930, and minus-17 degrees Fahrenheit on Jan. 17, 1893.
12. More than 99 percent of Delaware farms are family-owned.
13. 

    Oliver Evans

    Oliver Evans, born in Newport in 1755, invented an automatic flour-milling machine the revolutionized the industry. George Washington installed one at Mount Vernon.

14. Hungry? There are 1,889 eating and drinking places in Delaware.
15. Three Delaware rivers flow westward into the Chesapeake Bay – the Nanticoke, the Choptank and the Pocomoke. The rest flow eastward into the Delaware Bay
16. Almost 17 percent of Delaware homes are currently vacant.
17. The mean or average salary in Delaware across all occupations was $50,283 in 2015.
18. There are 42 pet supply stores in Delaware.
19. The vacancy rate for Class A buildings in Wilmington’s central business district is currently in the mid-teens. (Class A buildings are well located, accessible, professionally managed and outfitted with state-of-the-art systems and amenities.) The vacancy rate for Class B buildings in the central business district – usually older buildings with acceptable finishes – is in the upper 20s.
20. Forty percent of Delaware workers are professionals or managers.
21. Fourteen years after Delaware banned smoking in public places, 17.4 percent of adults still smoke tobacco.
22. More than 23 percent of Delaware’s public high school students smoke or vape.
23. More than 3,450 people work in the commercial aviation industry in Delaware.
24. The average weight of a Delaware chicken is 7.1 pounds.
25. State statisticians project these jobs will grow in Delaware in the next decade:  chemists, paralegals, hair stylists, software developers, civil engineers, mechanical engineers, registered nurses, nursing instructors, psychologists, pharmacists, retail sales clerks and substance abuse counselors.
26. Most homes for sale in Delaware this summer were built in 1999 – a total of 511.
27. The University of Delaware’s incoming freshman class includes 2,291 women and 1,659 men.
28. About 11 percent of Delaware workers are employed in restaurants or food service.
29. Twelve men were fatally injured on the job in Delaware in 2014, the latest year available. Three deaths were the result of violence; nine were transportation-related.
30. Just two charter schools are now located in the Community Education Building, the old MBNA headquarters on Rodney Square – Kuumba Academy and Great Oaks Wilmington.
31. There are 255 dentist offices in Delaware.
32. There were an estimated 711 chemical engineers in Delaware in 2014. State projections estimate there will be 706 jobs for them in 2024.
33. Only 6 percent of Delaware residents are not U.S. citizens.
34. Delaware dentists earned an average salary of $227,157 last year.
35. Only 34 percent of Delaware residents attend religious services weekly.
36. Delaware harvests more acres of lima beans for freezing than any other state, even California.
37. About 180 writers and authors worked in Delaware in 2014, and they earned an average of $63,380.
38. Last year 4,219 single-family homes were built in Delaware.
39. Delaware’s population was 59,094 in 1790, and Sussex was the most populous country with 20,488 residents.
40. Eight out of 10 Delaware employees drive to work solo.
41. The Social Security Administration keeps track of the most popular baby names in each state. Delaware’s top boy name last year was Mason. Tops for girls: Ava. Runners-up: Noah and Olivia.
42. Delaware companies exported $140 million worth of aircraft parts last year.
43. Delaware is home to two Fortune 500 companies – 2-year-old Navient and 214-year-old DuPont.
44. Almost 8 percent of Delawareans car pool to work.
45. About 7.6 percent of Delaware homes are classified as vacation homes.
46. Delaware farmers raised $9.89 million worth of watermelons in 2015.
47. Mountaire Farms, headquartered in Millsboro, is seventh in the nation in ready-to-cook chicken production. Allen Harim Foods in Seaford is ranked 21st.
48. Slightly more than 23 percent of Delaware public highs school students reported using marijuana in the past month in a Division of Public Health survey.
49. The median cost of a Delaware apartment rose 3 percent in the last year, according to ApartmentList.com. A one-bedroom went for $950, and a two-bedroom went for $1,120.
50. Delaware businesses exported $5.4 billion worth of goods last year.
51. The average salary for Delaware dental hygienists was $73,448 last year.
52. Delaware has the 35th highest beer excise tax in the nation.
53. The 260 professional fund-raisers who work in Delaware earn an average of $54,090.
54. Alpha Technologies USA has 45 employees in its new Wilmington office focused on wooing local companies to use its U.S.-based IT services instead of offshore IT. The first company to sign on is Freedom Mortgage.
55. Delaware farmers sold 1.7 billion pounds of chickens in 2014.
56. Only 2.9 percent of us take public transportation to work.
57. Great Britain and Saudi Arabia were Delaware’s two top trading partners last year.
58. More than 4 percent of Delawareans work from home.
59. Delaware is ranked No. 1 among states when it comes to value of agricultural products sold per acre. It beat out California.
60. California beats Delaware for many Delaware residents though, especially actors and writers. The list of Delaware actors who headed to Hollywood starts with silent screen star Estelle Taylor, born in Wilmington in 1894. More recently, these names can be found in movie and television credits: Aubrey Plaza, Neil Casey, Ryan Phillippe, John Gallagher Jr., Joey Perillo, Bernie McInerney, Elizabeth Shue, George Maguire, Yvette Freeman, Raul Esparza, Teri Polo, Kathleen Widdoes, Herta Ware, Suzanne Savoy, Lyman Chen, Patrick Kerr, Robert Mitchum, Dorothy Mitchum, Judge Reinhold, Valerie Bertinelli, Regina Taufen, Doug Hutchison, Dave Sheridan, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Diane Salinger, Victoria De Mare and Cynthia Rothrock. And Delaware writers headed west too – Will Fetters, Ben Warheit, Jack D. Hunter and Ti West. Delaware is the home state of two Oscar winners – Joseph Feury, who won for documentary in 1986, and Luke Matheny, who won for short film in 2011.