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State Life Score

Delaware

Bottom-quartile composite Life Score — grade C-, 14th percentile of the national corpus.

40.0
Life Score / 100
C-
Grade (curved)
#44
of 51 states
14%
composite percentile

Data updated August 2026

Verify: BEA · BLS · HUD · FBI · NCES · EPA · Census · Report a data issue · Data changelog

The verdict

Delaware is bottom-quartile composite Life Score — #44 of 51 (40.0/100, grade C-, 14th percentile). Carried by wages at 60/100; held back most by rent at 20/100.

14th
composite percentile
#44
of 51 peers
37th
cost dimension percentile
59th
wages dimension percentile

Life Score shape · LOWER · WAGE-LED

Delaware at a glance

Delaware is a LOWER-band WAGE-LED state: wages leads at 60/100 while rent drags at 20/100 (DEAR cost · MID wages). According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, Delaware ranks #44 of 51 states by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #32 of 51 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.

Where Delaware sits among all US states

Composite Life Score vs the 50 states + DC

40 14th percentile higher than 14% of 51 US states

25–30: 1 US states (2%). Below this entry. 30–35: 2 US states (4%). Below this entry. 35–40: 4 US states (8%). Below this entry. 40–45: 6 US states (12%). This entry sits in this band. 45–50: 10 US states (20%). Above this entry. 50–55: 12 US states (24%). Above this entry. 55–60: 10 US states (20%). Above this entry. 60–65: 4 US states (8%). Above this entry. 65–70: 2 US states (4%). Above this entry. This state 25 70 every US state, bucketed by value

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US states. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source PlainCompare composite of BEA, BLS, HUD, FBI, NCES, DOL, EPA data

Dimension detail

How Delaware scores, dimension by dimension

Score Breakdown

Cost of Living Wages Rent Safety Schools Childcare Environment

Dimension Scores

Cost of Living 38/100 (20%)
Wages 60/100 (20%)
Rent 20/100 (15%)
Safety 40/100 (15%)
Schools 40/100 (10%)
Childcare 50/100 (10%)
Environment 24/100 (10%)

Read with Delaware

Nearest composite peers and cost poles (LOWER · DEAR/MID).

California

ABS(composite) peer at 40.1 (Δ 0.1 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade C- vs this page's LOWER · WAGE-LED · DEAR/MID.

Connecticut

ABS(composite) peer at 40.6 (Δ 0.6 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade C- vs this page's LOWER · WAGE-LED · DEAR/MID.

Montana

ABS(composite) peer at 38.7 (Δ 1.3 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade C- vs this page's LOWER · WAGE-LED · DEAR/MID.

South Carolina

ABS(composite) peer at 41.3 (Δ 1.3 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade C- vs this page's LOWER · WAGE-LED · DEAR/MID.

Illinois (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 36/100 (Δ 2); cost stamp DEAR vs this state's DEAR.

Utah (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 40/100 (Δ 2); cost stamp MID vs this state's DEAR.
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Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Data sourced from official public datasets, current as of 2026. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainCompare