Are you looking for love in Delaware?
Or are you just hoping to hook up with a hot Delawarean?
Either way, we’ve got you covered here.
If you live in Delaware, there’s a pretty good chance there are a lot of singles in your area. The First State has plenty of people over 18 who aren’t married or in a serious relationship.
That’s great news for people who are single and looking to mingle.
So, where are the best cities for singles in Delaware? We used Saturday Night Science to find out.
22.1 median age · 5.0% married households
Located in
New Castle County, Delaware
Newark is a city in New Castle County, Delaware, United States. It is located 12 miles west-southwest of Wilmington. According to the 2010 Census, the population of the city is 31,454. Newark is home to the University of Delaware, which is often regarded as a top ten ranked University in the United States.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
37.0 median age · 8.0% married households
Located in
New Castle County, Delaware
Wilmington is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It is at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine River, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley metropolitan area. Wilmington was named by Proprietor Thomas Penn after his friend Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, who was prime minister in the reign of George II of Great Britain.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
33.0 median age · 9.0% married households
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
34.7 median age · 8.0% married households
Located in
Kent County, Delaware
Dover is the capital and second-largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. It is also the county seat of Kent County, and the principal city of the Dover, DE Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Kent County and is part of the Philadelphia-Wilmington-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD Combined Statistical Area. It is located on the St. Jones River in the Delaware River coastal plain. It was named by William Penn of Dover in Kent, England. As of 2010, the city had a population of 36,047.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
50.3 median age · 4.0% married households
36.4 median age · 18.0% married households
67.2 median age · 11.0% married households
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
35.5 median age · 24.0% married households
Located in
New Castle County, Delaware
Elsmere is a town in New Castle County, Delaware, United States, bordering the city of Wilmington along Wilmington’s western border. According to the 2010 Census, the population of the town is 6,131.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
34.3 median age · 20.0% married households
Located in
New Castle County, Delaware
Smyrna is a town in Kent and New Castle counties in the U.S. state of Delaware. It is part of the Dover, Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area. According to the Census Bureau, as of 2010, the population of the town is 10,023.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
36.5 median age · 11.0% married households
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Delaware’s statewide median.
On the map
Where Delaware’s singles cluster
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How do you determine which city is best for singles in Delaware anyways?
To give you the places in Delaware which are best for singles to find one another, we used Saturday Night Science to look at a handful of metrics. Of course, we want to measure the type of people who live in each city and make some assumptions about what single people like.
So we researched the internet for a database that contains all that information.
We threw a lot of criteria at this one to get the best, most complete results possible. Using the 2020-2024 American Community Survey Census data produced for the state of Delaware, we looked at every single city in the state. We paid particular attention to:
- Population density
- % of population that’s male vs. female (closer to a 50-50 ratio is better)
- % of households with kids
- Median age
- Number of unmarried people in each city
We then gave each city a “Singles Score.”
The higher the score, the better the city is for singles to find one another. We also limited our results to cities with over 2,000 people. For Delaware, that meant a total of 23 cities.
We updated this article for 2026. This is our eleventh time ranking the best cities for singles in Delaware.
Read on to see why Newark is the talk of the town while Cheswold is probably a bit on the bland side.
The full plate
Best Cities For Singles In Delaware
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Singles Score | Population | Median Age | % Married Households | % Households w/ Kids |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Newark | 4.20 | 30,330 | 22.1 | 5.0% | 19.0% |
| 2 | Wilmington | 7.90 | 71,727 | 37.0 | 8.0% | 23.6% |
| 3 | Laurel | 9.50 | 4,152 | 33.0 | 9.0% | 41.7% |
| 4 | Dover | 9.90 | 39,837 | 34.7 | 8.0% | 27.7% |
| 5 | Selbyville | 10.70 | 3,097 | 50.3 | 4.0% | 23.4% |
| 6 | Wyoming | 11.30 | 2,000 | 36.4 | 18.0% | 25.7% |
| 7 | Lewes | 11.40 | 3,505 | 67.2 | 11.0% | 6.9% |
| 8 | Elsmere | 11.50 | 6,203 | 35.5 | 24.0% | 38.4% |
| 9 | Smyrna | 11.70 | 13,165 | 34.3 | 20.0% | 40.5% |
| 10 | Townsend | 11.70 | 2,832 | 36.5 | 11.0% | 48.5% |
| 11 | Clayton | 11.80 | 4,222 | 37.1 | 13.0% | 53.8% |
| 12 | New Castle | 11.90 | 5,579 | 48.5 | 20.0% | 22.3% |
| 13 | Camden | 12.30 | 4,106 | 36.5 | 11.0% | 24.1% |
| 14 | Milton | 12.30 | 3,567 | 52.6 | 12.0% | 22.3% |
| 15 | Delmar | 12.40 | 2,412 | 35.5 | 12.0% | 36.9% |
| 16 | Millsboro | 12.70 | 7,424 | 39.5 | 7.0% | 25.5% |
| 17 | Ocean View | 13.70 | 2,851 | 66.1 | 7.0% | 7.7% |
| 18 | Harrington | 14.10 | 3,838 | 32.2 | 18.0% | 31.4% |
| 19 | Millville | 14.30 | 2,430 | 65.1 | 4.0% | 8.3% |
| 20 | Milford | 14.40 | 12,803 | 41.9 | 10.0% | 25.3% |
| 21 | Bridgeville | 14.70 | 2,745 | 62.6 | 9.0% | 22.4% |
| 22 | Seaford | 15.40 | 8,485 | 41.1 | 14.0% | 42.1% |
| 23 | Cheswold | 16.20 | 2,143 | 45.6 | 15.0% | 30.3% |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. 23 cities with more than 2,000 residents.
Summary
Summary: The Best Cities For Singles In Delaware For 2026
If you’re looking for a breakdown of cities in Delaware ranked by criteria that most agree make a place a great spot for finding a single person (and potentially love), this is an accurate list.
The best cities for singles in Delaware are Newark, Wilmington, Laurel, Dover, Selbyville, Wyoming, Lewes, Elsmere, Smyrna, and Townsend.
