Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Milford grades D overall, 33rd among Delaware's 37 graded towns, mostly because of safety and health. Its crime rate is higher than 94% of U.S. towns, with 68 violent crimes reported to the FBI in 2025. CDC estimates put its residents' health behind 78% of the country. In its favor, it is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns. History is its standout character grade: an A, better than 92% of U.S. towns, with 20 places on the National Register. Its National Register listings include Christ Church and Peter Lofland House. 22% of working residents work locally in Milford, where Delaware’s towns sit at 4.5% and U.S. towns at 8%. The biggest park or preserve is Milford Ballpark, at 29 acres.
Where Milford beats most towns, and one thing worth knowing.
Parson Thorne Mansion
Census counts: 1,178 in 1860, 11,190 in 2020. The archive holds 24 old photos and papers going back to 1854 and 6 maps from 1918 on.
20 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Delaware), ordered by how far Milford is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Who provides power, water and the rest in Milford, 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 Milford.
Milford draws workers from Dover and beyond, fares better on crime within Delaware than nationally and has a longer frost-free season than most of the country, though not than most of Delaware.
At 60.4 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports more crime than 76% of Delaware’s graded towns. Reported crimes fell from 614 to 450 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
Milford’s property crime rate is 25.7 per 1,000 residents. Milford reports more crime per resident than most U.S. towns we grade: about 94% report less. Milford’s violent crime rate is 4.6 per 1,000 residents.
| Milford | Delaware towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 25.7 per 1,000 residents | 17.3 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 4.6 per 1,000 residents | 3.5 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Its public schools are run by the Milford School District. Two of its 7 schools are below, each with why it’s listed. The largest public high school is Milford Senior High School, with 1,271 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Milford Central AcademyLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 1,013 | B− |
| Milford Senior High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 1,271 | C |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within DE on state tests and graduation
8,431 jobs are based in Milford, 1.9 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in.
About one in 5 of Milford’s working residents works in town. 17% of residents live below the poverty line in Milford. Since 2013, Milford has added 403 jobs, to 8,431 in 2023.
| Milford | Delaware towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 17% | 8.1% | 9.6% |
| Work from home | 8.1% | 15% | 11% |
| Median household income | $59,000 | $82,000 | $80,000 |
| Average trip to work | 23 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
13% of Milford adults binge drink. Milford beats the Delaware average on 0 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 16. 33% of Milford adults get no exercise outside work.
| Milford | Delaware towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 15% | 16% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 33% | 27% | 25% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 42% | 37% | 35% |
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 13% | 12% |
| What stands out | Milford | DE |
|---|---|---|
| More uninsured adults | 13% | 9% |
| More adults facing food insecurity | 19.8% | 13.9% |
| More adults facing a utility shut-off | 10.2% | 7.4% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 79% of U.S. communities. Since 1980, 31 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Milford.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
The Greenwood 2ne weather station, 10 miles away, records that the frost-free season runs about 200 days: longer than most of the country, but shorter than 88% of Delaware places with climate records.
Milford has chilly winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 88°, January nights drop to 27° and about 13 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
The typical Milford home is worth about $343,000, about the same as a year ago, 15% below the Delaware typical home.
| Milford | Delaware towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 51% | 70% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,260 a month | $1,441 a month | $1,185 a month |
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Only 51.3% of households own their home, against 73% across Delaware.
No broad age group is more than 4 points off the Delaware average. Milford has grown 32% since 2020, to 14,723 residents in the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate. 28% of adults 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or more, vs 36% across Delaware.
| Milford | Delaware towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aged 65 or older | 23% | 18% | 18% |
| Under 18 | 23% | 20% | 22% |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 28% | 35% | 29% |
| Median age | 41.9 years | 40 years | 40.5 years |
57% women, 43% men
About 77 men for every 100 women (the survey’s margin: ±3.1 points). Across Delaware, 51.6% of residents are women.
| Milford | DE | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 13.2% | 11% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 9.7% | 9.7% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 6% | 8.5% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 13.1% | 12.6% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 10.7% | 12.2% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 9.7% | 11.4% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 14.4% | 14% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 15.8% | 12.5% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 7.3% | 8.1% | 7% |
| No diploma | 10% | 8.3% | 10.4% |
| High school | 35.2% | 28.8% | 26% |
| Some college | 18% | 18.8% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 9.3% | 8.3% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 18.3% | 20.4% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 9.3% | 15.3% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
2.4 miles of trail in 12 parks and preserves. Only 1 of the 34 Delaware towns we compare have a lower share of conserved land than Milford.
| Milford | Delaware towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 4.4% | 16% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.2 miles per square mile | 0.5 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Goat Island Park | 0.8 mi | 20 |
| 2. Mispillion Walkway Park | 0.3 mi | 5 |
| 3. Mispillion Riverwalk | 0.3 mi | 5 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Milford. Close and well known come first.
33 mi Theme parkMorey's Piers
15 mi MuseumAir Mobility Command Museum
20 mi LandmarkFort Miles35 mi Zoo & aquariumCape May County Park & Zoo34 mi Theme parkHunt's Pier
23 mi Theme parkFunland (Rehoboth Beach, Delaware)Morey's Piers: Smallbones, CC0 · Air Mobility Command Museum: Teamski1, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Fort Miles: Unknown, Public domain · Funland (Rehoboth Beach, Delaware): Tsole, CC BY-SA 4.0
None within 15 miles of Milford; the nearest are
About 3 of every 100 Milford residents are enrolled in college, against 7 across Delaware.
9,559 counted in 2010 and 11,190 in 2020; an estimated 14,723 in 2025.
Growth hasn’t slowed: 31.9% since 2020, after 17.1% in the decade before.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts · Census Bureau estimate, July 1, 2025
20 places in Milford on the National Register of Historic Places.
19 notable people were born in Milford.
City in Delaware, United States
Milford is a city in Kent and Sussex counties in the U.S. state of Delaware. According to the 2020 census, the population of the city is 11,190 people and 4,356 households in the city. The Kent County portion of Milford is part of the Dover metropolitan area and the Philadelphia metropolitan area, while the Sussex County portion is part of the Salisbury, MD-DE Metropolitan Statistical Area.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Milford grades D overall, better than 9% of U.S. towns and #33 of 37 in Delaware. It grades C− for health, D for safety and C+ for schools. Safety is its weak spot, with a D.
That is 4.2 years of the area's median household income ($81,497 across the Seaford, DE 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+.
19 notable people were born here, including Ruth Ann Minner and William T. Watson.
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