Do you live in one of the murder capitals of Delaware?
We all watch the news with horror when we hear about a homicide that happens not that far away from us. While a murder just blocks or even a couple of towns away from your house would make anyone uneasy, in the long run, most likely, where you live is relatively safe.
To find the cities in Delaware with the most murders and the highest murder rates per capita, we used Saturday Night Science to compare the FBI crime data on murders for the 6 cities in the First State with over 4,000 residents.
What city has the highest murder rate in Delaware? The city with the highest murder rate in Delaware is Wilmington with 35 murders per 100,000 people.
What is the city in Delaware with highest number of murders? The city in Delaware with the highest number of murders is Wilmington with 25 murders.
Read on below to see how we crunched the numbers and how your town in Delaware ranked. There were ‘only’ 6 cities in Delaware where a city reported a murder to the FBI, meaning 17 places had no murder.
35 per 100k · #1 highest murder rate in Delaware
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
23 per 100k · #2 highest murder rate in Delaware
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
21 per 100k · #3 highest murder rate in Delaware
Located in
Sussex County, Delaware
Milford is a city in Kent and Sussex counties in the U.S. state of Delaware. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 9,559.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
17 per 100k · #4 highest murder rate in Delaware
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
13 per 100k · #5 highest murder rate in Delaware
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
3 per 100k · #6 highest murder rate in Delaware
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
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 murders happen
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we calculated the murder capitals of Delaware
While there are surveys and public polls on what cities in a state are the most dangerous, we wanted to rely on something other than speculation and opinion. Instead, we used Saturday Night Science to compare the hard numbers from the FBI’s last year of reporting. Specifically, we analyzed the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, which summarizes the number of murders in each city annually.
We only looked at every single city in Delaware for which FBI data was available for the most recent FBI Crime In The United States. That left us with 6 cities to rank.
We took the number of murders per capita as the ranking factor. The place with the most murders per capita based on the most recent data is Wilmington. It is our eleventh time ranking the places with the most murders per capita in Delaware. We updated the list for 2026.
The full plate
Murder Rates By City In Delaware
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Report. 6 Delaware cities that reported a murder.
Summary
Summary: The Places With The Most Murders In Delaware For 2026
If you’re looking at the places in Delaware with the most murders, and where residents have the highest chances of being killed themselves, this is an accurate list. Again, these statistics are an indication of where crimes occur, not a statement about the effectiveness of the law enforcement in the areas they serve.
The cities with the highest murder per capita in Delaware are Wilmington, Laurel, Milford, Dover, Millsboro, Newark.
