Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 3,752.
Highland Acres is a solid, middle-of-the-road choice. It grades B+ overall, 12th among Delaware's 37 graded towns, with no subject far below average. Its best mark is incomes: the median household earns $102K. It also does better than most on schools: its schools outperform 67% of the state's. Its lowest everyday mark is in health: residents are less healthy than 66% of U.S. towns on CDC estimates. A typical home there costs about $306K, 4.1 years of the Dover metro’s $74K median household income. Highland Acres is easier to get around on foot or by transit than 94% of U.S. towns. Only 2 of Delaware’s 54 towns score lower on history. Highland Acres’ median household income is $102,000, above both Delaware’s towns ($80,000) and U.S. towns ($80,000).
Where Highland Acres beats most towns.
Where Highland Acres’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Delaware), ordered by how far Highland Acres is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 1,471 in 1970, 3,492 in 2020. The archive holds 5 old photos and papers going back to 2018 and 4 maps from 1930 on.
Explore the history →Highland Acres is unincorporated, so Kent County and regional agencies provide most services.
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 Highland Acres.
Highland Acres sends most of its workers to Dover and beyond, but it trails even towns with similar incomes on health.
1.3 miles of trail in 1 park or preserve. The trail density in Highland Acres is 0.9 miles per square mile.
| Highland Acres | Delaware towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.9 miles per square mile | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 8% | 16% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Tibury Park | 0.5 mi | 11 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Highland Acres has 391 jobs for its 1,425 working residents: even if every job went to a resident, most would still commute out.
Most working residents leave Highland Acres for work: only 2% work in town. Since 2013, Highland Acres has added 172 jobs, to 391 in 2023. Highland Acres’ average trip to work is 22 minutes.
| Highland Acres | Delaware towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 22 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Work from home | 8.9% | 15% | 11% |
| Working residents who work in town | 1.8% | 5.2% | 8% |
| Below the poverty line | 6.2% | 8.3% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Against the 8,224 U.S. towns with household incomes like Highland Acres’s, it is less healthy than 90%, so it trails even them.
12% of adults binge drink in Highland Acres. Highland Acres beats the Delaware average on 4 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 8. 43% of adults have high blood pressure in Highland Acres.
| Highland Acres | Delaware towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 12% | 15% | 16% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 43% | 37% | 35% |
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 13% | 12% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 84% | 81% | 79% |
| What stands out | Highland Acres | DE |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer binge drinkers | 11.9% | 14.2% |
| More adults seeing a dentist | 67.3% | 63.1% |
| More adults with COPD | 8.6% | 7.1% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Highland Acres has chilly winters and warm summers. 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
Adults 35 to 64 are 32% of residents (38% statewide); people 65 and older are 25% of residents (21% statewide). 37% of Highland Acres adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more.
| Highland Acres | Delaware towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median age | 45.1 years | 40 years | 40.5 years |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 37% | 34% | 29% |
Somewhere between 32% and 68% women
The Census survey reached too few of Highland Acres’ residents to say more: its margin here is ±18 points. Across Delaware, 51.6% of residents are women.
| Highland Acres | DE | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 9.9% | 11% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 13.9% | 9.7% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 8% | 8.5% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 11.1% | 12.6% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 7% | 12.2% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 11.7% | 11.4% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 13.7% | 14% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 14.5% | 12.5% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 10.3% | 8.1% | 7% |
| No diploma | 2.8% | 8.3% | 10.4% |
| High school | 30.5% | 28.8% | 26% |
| Some college | 20.6% | 18.8% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 8.8% | 8.3% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 24.7% | 20.4% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 12.6% | 15.3% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates · in a town of 3,800, single groups can be off by several points
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 58% of U.S. communities. Since 2016, 2 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Highland Acres.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
2 within 15 miles of the center of Highland Acres
About 4 of every 100 Highland Acres residents are enrolled in college, against 7 across Delaware.
Census-designated place in Delaware, United States
Highland Acres is a census-designated place (CDP) in Kent County, Delaware, United States. It is part of the Dover, Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 census, Highland Acres had a population of 3,492.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
4 towns share a border with Highland Acres.
| Town | DE rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Highland Acres | #12 | B+ | B− | — | B+ | C |
| Rising Sun-Lebanon | #13 | B+ | C | — | B+ | B |
| Kent Acres | — | — | C | — | B+ | C |
| Camden | #27 | C | C | D | B+ | B− |
| Rodney Village | — | — | B− | — | B+ | D |
Kent Acres and Rodney Village have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Highland Acres, Rising Sun-Lebanon, Kent Acres and Rodney Village report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Highland Acres with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
By most measures, yes. Highland Acres grades B+ overall, better than 65% of U.S. towns and #12 of 37 in Delaware. It grades C for health and B+ for schools.
The typical home is worth about $306,000, 24% below the Delaware typical home. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B−.