Delaware small business statistics
Delaware produced 60,132 business applications in 2025, up 1.1% from 2024 and 132.3% from the pre-pandemic 2019 baseline. The page shows the latest employer-likely application signal, county concentration after adjusting for population, private-sector labor growth, SBA lending, unincorporated receipts, bankruptcy filings, and federal contract demand.
Public source files covering Delaware business formation, labor, lending, proprietor income, bankruptcy, and federal contracting.
What the data shows
The topline combines new filing volume, employer-likely application quality, county concentration, labor-market structure, lending, and business stress signals.
Delaware logged 60,132 business applications in 2025, up 1.1% from 2024 and 132.3% from the pre-pandemic 2019 baseline.
Through May 2026, total applications were up 1.2% from the same months in 2025; high-propensity applications were up 1.6%.
New Castle filed 28,427 applications in 2025, the largest county total in Delaware. Kent led the high-volume counties after adjusting for population, a filing-location signal that should be read with Delaware’s entity-registration context in mind.
Professional services added the most private-sector establishments since 2019. Health care and social assistance added the most private-sector jobs.
SBA 7(a) and 504 approvals to Delaware businesses reached $96.9M in FY2025 across 282 loans, led by accommodation and food services, other services, professional services, administrative services, and retail trade.
Business bankruptcy cases tied to Delaware counties rose from 58 to 81 in the 12-month period ending March 31, 2026.
New business formation
Delaware business applications reached 60,132 in 2025, up 1.1% from 2024. Through May 2026, applications were running up 1.2% from the same months in 2025.
The long comparison starts before the pandemic reset.
The 2019 comparison uses the last full pre-pandemic year. The shutdown period and the business churn that followed reshaped EIN filing patterns; high-propensity applications totaled 9,195 through May 2026, up 1.6% from Jan-May 2025. Projected business formations within eight quarters rose 2.7% over the same period.
Metric note: Census BFS counts applications for employer identification numbers. Applications are early filings; confirmed operating-business counts arrive later.
Where applications are concentrated
New Castle is the largest application market by raw filing volume. Kent stands out after population adjustment, but the county rate is best read as filing-location intensity rather than a direct count of new local operating businesses.
Population adjustment can expose filing-location effects.
The chart uses 2025 Census BFS applications divided by Census Vintage 2025 resident population estimates. New Castle still has the most total filings in the table below, while Kent has the highest application volume relative to resident population among these high-volume counties. For Delaware, treat the county rate as a filing-location signal that can be influenced by entity-registration and business-address patterns.
Metric note: Census BFS counts EIN applications. The denominator is 2025 resident population, not existing businesses, so this is a scale adjustment rather than a startup conversion rate.
| County | 2025 applications | Change vs 2024 | Change vs 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Castle | 28,427 | -4.3% | +85.0% |
| Kent | 24,828 | +5.4% | +276.8% |
| Sussex | 6,877 | +11.2% | +75.4% |
Jobs, establishments, and wages
In 2024, Delaware had 45,178 private-sector establishments and 409,731 private-sector jobs in the QCEW annual file. Establishments changed 33.6% from 2019 to 2024; jobs changed 5.3%.
Professional services is the establishment-growth story.
Professional services added 3,913 establishments from 2019 to 2024. Health care and social assistance added 6,700 jobs over the same period.
QCEW tracks employer establishments. It is the recurring source here for jobs, wages, payroll, and local industry structure.
| Industry | 2024 establishments | Change vs 2019 | 2024 jobs | Change vs 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Professional services | 9,297 | +3,913 (+72.7%) | 28,841 | +2,724 (+10.4%) |
| Health care and social assistance | 6,010 | +1,038 (+20.9%) | 78,754 | +6,700 (+9.3%) |
| Administrative services | 4,886 | +2,024 (+70.7%) | 28,768 | -777 (-2.6%) |
| Construction | 3,758 | +751 (+25.0%) | 24,283 | +1,374 (+6.0%) |
| Wholesale trade | 2,878 | +362 (+14.4%) | 12,775 | +1,792 (+16.3%) |
| Accommodation and food services | 2,572 | +315 (+14.0%) | 43,751 | +583 (+1.4%) |
| Finance and insurance | 2,556 | +733 (+40.2%) | 43,784 | +1,216 (+2.9%) |
| Other services | 2,460 | +408 (+19.9%) | 12,711 | +586 (+4.8%) |
| Real estate and rental | 1,298 | +213 (+19.6%) | 6,014 | +420 (+7.5%) |
| Information | 1,152 | +655 (+131.8%) | 3,529 | -376 (-9.6%) |
SBA lending
SBA 7(a) and 504 approvals to Delaware businesses totaled $96.9M in FY2025 across 282 loans. The SBA files report 1,848 jobs supported for those approvals.
Accommodation and food services drew the most SBA capital.
Accommodation and food services drew $18.0M in FY2025 SBA approvals. other services, professional services, administrative services, and retail trade also ranked among the top capital destinations.
SBA fiscal year 2025 ran from Oct. 1, 2024, through Sept. 30, 2025. The source package was current as of April 28, 2026.
| Sector | FY2025 loans | FY2025 approvals | SBA jobs supported |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accommodation and food services | 28 | $18.0M | 420 |
| Other services | 41 | $13.9M | 294 |
| Professional services | 39 | $11.3M | 195 |
| Administrative services | 21 | $10.1M | 136 |
| Retail trade | 29 | $8.8M | 108 |
| Arts and entertainment | 13 | $7.4M | 66 |
| Manufacturing | 9 | $5.6M | 63 |
| Construction | 37 | $4.0M | 140 |
| Educational services | 7 | $3.8M | 66 |
| Wholesale trade | 14 | $3.8M | 73 |
| County | FY2025 loans | FY2025 approvals | SBA jobs supported |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Castle | 156 | $62.7M | 1,140 |
| Sussex | 76 | $26.4M | 475 |
| Kent | 50 | $7.8M | 233 |
The unincorporated business economy
IRS SOI data show 88,250 Delaware Schedules C and partnership returns/forms in Tax Year 2023. Those businesses reported $23.2B in gross receipts and -$5.1B in the combined income/profit measure.
Sole proprietors account for most returns.
Delaware had 69,004 nonfarm sole-proprietor Schedules C in Tax Year 2023, with $5.3B in gross receipts and $857.1M in net profit.
Partnerships reported more gross receipts.
Delaware partnerships filed 19,246 Forms 1065 in Tax Year 2023 and reported $17.9B in gross receipts.
| County | Returns/forms | Gross receipts | Combined income/profit metric |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Castle | 50,169 | $16.0B | -$5.6B |
| Sussex | 22,813 | $4.2B | $544.4M |
| Kent | 15,268 | $3.0B | $5.3M |
Business stress signals
U.S. Courts F-5A shows 81 business bankruptcy cases tied to Delaware counties in the 12 months ending March 31, 2026, rose from 58 in the prior 12-month period. Chapter 11 cases totaled 40.
County bankruptcy rows can move sharply.
New Castle had the largest business-bankruptcy count in the latest F-5A table. County bankruptcy rows can move when related business cases are filed in the same venue, so this table works best as a lead for follow-up reporting.
Definition: U.S. Courts classifies debt as business when the debtor is a corporation or partnership, or when business-related debt predominates.
| County | Business cases, 12 months ending Mar. 31, 2026 | Change vs prior 12 months | Chapter 11 cases | All bankruptcy cases |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Castle | 54 | +8 | 24 | 927 |
| Kent | 18 | +9 | 12 | 407 |
| Sussex | 9 | +6 | 4 | 310 |
National credit backdrop
The 2026 Fed Small Business Credit Survey appendix reported that 94% of U.S. employer firms faced a financial challenge in 2025, 38% applied for financing, and 52% of applicants were fully approved.
Federal contract demand
USAspending reports $279.9M in FY2025 federal procurement obligations to recipients located in Delaware. The filter covers procurement awards to DE recipients across award type codes A, B, C, and D.
| NAICS | Federal procurement category | FY2025 obligations |
|---|---|---|
| 334516 | Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing | $29.6M |
| 541519 | Other Computer Related Services | $25.0M |
| 236220 | Commercial and Institutional Building Construction | $22.2M |
| 324110 | Petroleum Refineries | $19.7M |
| 541511 | Custom Computer Programming Services | $18.7M |
| 541715 | Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology) | $15.9M |
| 611110 | Elementary and Secondary Schools | $12.0M |
| 481211 | Nonscheduled Chartered Passenger Air Transportation | $11.8M |
| 561730 | Landscaping Services | $11.1M |
| 481212 | Nonscheduled Chartered Freight Air Transportation | $11.1M |
Sources and methodology
The charts and figures on this page come from public source files or APIs. Annual sources use the most recent complete year available; partial-year figures are labeled in the text.
- Census BFS monthly CSV
Updated June 10, 2026, 14:00 GMT - Census BFS county workbook
Updated June 10, 2026, 14:22 GMT - Census county population estimates
Vintage 2025 county resident population estimates - BLS QCEW annual area files
2019 and 2024 annual API files - SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA package
Updated April 28, 2026, 14:42 GMT - IRS SOI Tax Year 2023 unincorporated tables
Tax Year 2023 county combined, sole proprietor state, and partnership state tables - U.S. Courts F-5A bankruptcy XLSX
12 months ending March 31, 2026 - Fed SBCS Main Street Metrics appendix
Last updated March 23, 2026 - USAspending API
FY2025 procurement obligations
Alex Morgan edits public business datasets for SMB Statistics, including Census, BLS, SBA, IRS, U.S. Courts, Fed SBCS, and USAspending files.