Delaware Counties Map: Click All 3 Counties

How many counties are in Delaware?

Delaware has 3 counties. That's the fewest of any state.

Delaware has three counties, the fewest of any state. From north to south they are New Castle, Kent and Sussex, which makes the map easy to remember. The counties are divided into old units called hundreds, a name brought over from England that still shows up on property records.

Because there are only three counties, Delaware is a good place to practice reading a map closely. Have children trace the curved northern border, the Twelve-Mile Circle drawn around the town of New Castle, which is the only circular state border in the country. Then follow the Delaware River and Delaware Bay down the eastern side to the Atlantic coast at the bottom of Sussex County. The western border with Maryland is mostly a straight survey line, part of the boundary work Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon finished in the 1760s. The Chesapeake and Delaware Canal crosses New Castle County, which is why people sometimes talk about above the canal and below the canal when they describe the busy north and the quieter, farm-filled south. Sussex County is the state's farm and beach country, with Rehoboth Beach and Bethany Beach on the Atlantic.

How Delaware's counties were formed

Delaware's three counties are among the oldest in the country. They began as Dutch and English court districts in the 1600s, and in 1682 William Penn gave them their present names: New Castle, Kent (earlier called St. Jones) and Sussex (earlier Deale). The state has never added a fourth. Georgetown was laid out in 1791 as a new, central county seat for Sussex, and every two years it holds Return Day, when election winners and losers ride together in a parade.

Delaware regions and the counties in each

Delaware divides neatly. Northern New Castle County, above the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, is the Piedmont, with rolling hills and Wilmington. Everything south of the canal is the flat Atlantic Coastal Plain. Kent County is farm country around Dover and Dover Air Force Base. Sussex County holds the Inland Bays and the beach towns of Lewes, Rehoboth Beach and Bethany Beach, plus the Great Cypress Swamp on the Maryland line.

Notable places on the Delaware county map

Ebright Azimuth, the highest point at 448 feet, is in northern New Castle County, and Delaware has the lowest average elevation of any state. Cape Henlopen State Park, where Delaware Bay meets the Atlantic, is in Sussex County near Lewes, which calls itself the first town in the first state. Dover, in Kent County, is home to the Old State House and Dover Air Force Base. Winterthur and the Nemours Estate, two du Pont family estates with gardens open to visitors, are near Wilmington in New Castle County. First State National Historical Park has sites in all three counties, a handy way to tie the map to history: Delaware was the first state to ratify the US Constitution, on December 7, 1787, in Dover.

Delaware counties map: the biggest and smallest

Sussex County is the largest county in Delaware, with 936 square miles of land, about 48% of the state. New Castle County is the smallest, at 426 square miles.

Which counties in Delaware have the most people?

New Castle County has the most people, about 588,093 in the Census Bureau's July 2024 estimate, or 56% of everyone in Delaware. Kent County has the fewest, about 192,690.

What county is Dover in?

Dover, the capital of Delaware, is in Kent County. Kent County ranks 3rd of 3 by population. Delaware is called the First State, and it became the 1st state in 1787.

Counties on the Delaware border

Learning the edge of the map first gives children a frame to fill in. Delaware shares a border with Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

How Delaware's counties compare with other states

Delaware ranks 49th among the 50 states in land area and 45th in population. Its average county covers about 650 square miles and holds about 350,639 people. Across the 50 states, the average county-level area covers about 1,139 square miles and holds about 109,381 people, so Delaware's counties are smaller than usual in size. Small counties pack more names into the same space, so zooming in helps.

Landmarks for learning the counties of Delaware

• New Castle County is the small northern tip, home to Wilmington.
• Kent County is in the middle, home to the capital, Dover.
• Sussex County, the largest, holds the Atlantic beaches.
• The Delaware River and Delaware Bay form the eastern edge, across the water from New Jersey.
• The straight western border separates all three counties from Maryland.

With 3 counties, you can take on the whole map at once in a Practice round. Then print the Delaware county map worksheet to check that it sticks on paper.

All 3 Delaware counties

Every county on the map, A to Z, with its land area and July 2024 population estimate.

Delaware geography for homeschoolers

Pair this map with the Southeast states and capitals quiz and the US states quiz. If you teach at home, see homeschooling in delaware, and check delaware school choice to see whether a program may help pay for Delaware history and geography curriculum. Each program decides what it covers.