Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Dover earns a D, better than 6% of U.S. towns, mostly because of safety and health. Its crime rate is higher than 98% of U.S. towns, with 333 violent crimes reported to the FBI in 2025. CDC estimates put its residents' health behind 81% of the country. What it does well: it is more walkable than 94% of U.S. towns. Dover’s level of violent crime is 8.2 per 1,000 residents, above both the Delaware town median (3.5) and the median of U.S. towns (1.6). Its National Register listings include John Dickinson House and Old Statehouse. Of the 37 Delaware towns we compare, none has a higher share of working residents who work in town than Dover.
Where Dover beats most towns, and one thing worth knowing.
John Dickinson House
John Dickinson House is a National Historic Landmark, the National Register’s top tier.
Census counts: 1,906 in 1870, 39,403 in 2020. The archive holds 12 old photos and papers going back to 1875 and 4 maps from 1930 on.
18 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Dover takes its name from Dover in Kent, England, 3,660 miles across the Atlantic.
UKUK editionDover, settled in 1683, takes its name from Dover, a large town in Kent, England.
2 more U.S. towns are named after Dover:Dover, NH34,623Dover, NY8,419
Named after: each U.S. town’s Wikipedia article. Grades compare each town with towns in its own country, so they aren’t a head-to-head.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Delaware), ordered by how far Dover is from typical.
Its grades run from A for walkability (better than 94% of comparable towns) to D− for safety (better than 2%), so the D overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Who provides power, water and the rest in Dover, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
Ordered by what stands out in Dover.
Dover draws workers from Smyrna and beyond, but it reports violent crime at about twice the Delaware rate and trails Kent Acres and its other neighbors on schools.
Violent crime runs at 8.2 per 1,000 residents, about twice the Delaware rate; the Safety Grade counts each violent crime four times, so this weighs most on its D−. Reported crimes rose from 1,990 to 2,656 over the last three FBI years, a rise beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Each of its 3 graded neighbors has a higher School Grade than its C+, Kent Acres highest at B+.
Of its 22 schools, two are listed below, each with the reason. The public schools here belong to the Capital School District. The 6 public schools in Dover teach 2,609 students between them.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Middle School of InnovationLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 690 | – |
| Dover High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 1,812 | B |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within DE on state tests and graduation
28,350 jobs are based in Dover, 1.9 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in.
The average trip to work for Dover comes to 23 minutes. Roughly one working resident in three has a job in Dover itself. 15% of residents live below the poverty line locally. The median commute is under 17 miles.
| Dover | Delaware towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 15% | 8.1% | 9.6% |
| Median household income | $60,000 | $82,000 | $80,000 |
| Work from home | 9% | 15% | 11% |
| Average trip to work | 23 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Among adults in Dover, 15% have diabetes. CDC measures, 32 in all: Dover beats Delaware on 2 and trails on 17. In Dover, 38% of adults feel lonely, and 43% sleep under 7 hours. Only 2 of the 37 Delaware towns we compare have a higher share of adults who report frequent mental distress than Dover.
| Dover | Delaware towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 45% | 35% | 35% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 38% | 33% | 33% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 43% | 37% | 36% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 12% | 15% | 16% |
| What stands out | Dover | DE |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 7% | 9.1% |
| Fewer adults with high cholesterol | 36.6% | 41.2% |
| More adults facing a utility shut-off | 11.5% | 7.4% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Dover’s FEMA risk score is 25 of 100. Households here have drawn federal disaster aid in 7 declared disasters, most recently in 2026. FEMA puts 44% of the town’s expected hazard losses down to inland flooding, and 18% to hurricanes. Also worth knowing: since 1980, 15 flood insurance claims have been paid out locally.
FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Only 46.9% of households own their home, against 73% across Delaware.
Four-year graduates: 27% of adults 25 and older here, 36% across Delaware. Adults 18 to 34 are 30% of residents (21% statewide); adults 35 to 64 are 32% of residents (38% statewide). 40,592 people lived in Dover by the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate, 2.8% more than in 2020.
| Dover | Delaware towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median age | 34.7 years | 40.8 years | 40.5 years |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 27% | 35% | 29% |
| Under 18 | 20% | 21% | 22% |
| Aged 65 or older | 18% | 19% | 18% |
55% women, 45% men
About 83 men for every 100 women (the survey’s margin: ±1.6 points). Across Delaware, 51.6% of residents are women. Median age: women 36.6, men 33.4.
| Dover | DE | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 11.9% | 11% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 8.4% | 9.7% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 16.7% | 8.5% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 13.5% | 12.6% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 12.9% | 12.2% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 9.7% | 11.4% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 9.3% | 14% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 9.1% | 12.5% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 8.4% | 8.1% | 7% |
| No diploma | 8.1% | 8.3% | 10.4% |
| High school | 32.2% | 28.8% | 26% |
| Some college | 24.4% | 18.8% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 8.6% | 8.3% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 15.7% | 20.4% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 11% | 15.3% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
5.6 miles of trail in 33 parks and preserves. The biggest place to walk is Fork Branch Nature Preserve, 265 acres with 1 miles of trail. The concentration of trails in Dover is 0.2 miles per square mile.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Fork Branch Nature Preserve | 1 mi | 265 |
| 2. Silver Lake Park | 0.5 mi | 25 |
| 3. Schutte Park | 0.4 mi | 163 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
July afternoons reach 87°, January nights drop to 26° and about 13 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Among 37 Delaware towns, just 2 have a lower share of homes lived in by their owners than Dover. Homes sold in Dover spent a median 39 days on the market. Bidding over the asking price: 38% of homes sold locally.
| Dover | Delaware towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 47% | 70% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,344 a month | $1,441 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
2 within 15 miles of the center of Dover
College town 15 of every 100 Dover residents are enrolled in college, against 7 across Delaware.
2 colleges in town.
18 places in Dover on the National Register of Historic Places.
31 notable people were born in Dover.
State capital in Delaware, United States
Dover ( DOH-vər) is the capital and the second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Delaware, after Wilmington. It is also the county seat of Kent County and the principal city of the Dover metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses all of Kent County and is part of the Philadelphia metropolitan area. It is located on the St. Jones River in the Delaware River coastal plain. It was named by William Penn for Dover in Kent, England (for which Kent County is named). As of 2024, its population was estimated as 40,191.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
3 towns share a border with Dover.
| Town | DE rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dover | #37 | D | C | D− | C+ | C− |
| Kent Acres | — | — | C | — | B+ | C |
| Rodney Village | — | — | B− | — | B+ | D |
| Dover Base Housing | #23 | C+ | D− | — | B+ | B+ |
Kent Acres and Rodney Village have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Kent Acres, Rodney Village and Dover Base Housing report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Dover with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Dover grades D overall, better than 6% of U.S. towns. It grades C− for health, D− for safety and C+ for schools. Safety is its weak spot, with a D−.
That is 4.6 years of the area's median household income ($74,477 across the Dover, DE metro area). Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C.
31 notable people were born here, including Annie Jump Cannon and Teri Polo.
