CQ Politics

Delaware’s coastal terrain and inland agricultural sector contrasts with the state’s corporate center near Wilmington and its suburbs. A string of beach resorts in the state’s southeast corner — from Rehoboth to Fenwick Island — draws hundreds of thousands of tourists each year.

The state enjoys relatively low unemployment, and its favorable tax rates attract financial services companies, especially credit card firms. Due to liberal incorporation rules, Delaware is the on-paper home to 60 percent of the Fortune 500 companies, which keeps the state’s specialized business court busy.

Wilmington is the state’s economic hub — many manufacturing plants and banking firms are based in and around the city — and it is the very real home of the DuPont Company, one of Delaware’s largest private employers. Fifty years ago, almost half the state’s population lived in the city, which now casts only about 10 percent of Delaware’s vote. Recent projects to transform areas along the Delaware River into new neighborhoods have lured some people back to Wilmington.

Set in the state’s Kent County midsection, the state capital of Dover previously was known for manufacturing. The city has benefited from an expansion of the local tourism industry, particularly at Dover Downs, a gambling and racing facility.

The GOP’s strength lies in Wilmington’s growing suburbs and south of the Chesapeake and Delaware canal, in the poultry farms and coastal marshes of the Delmarva Peninsula. Wilmington and Dover have Democratic constituencies. Immigration, legal and illegal, is changing communities across the state as new residents, many from Guatemala and China, recently have made the traditionally dominant Anglo-Saxon population a minority in some towns.

Major Industry

Financial services, manufacturing, tourism, chemicals

Military Bases

Dover Air Force Base, 6,100 military, 1,800 civilian (2006)

Cities

Wilmington, 72,664; Dover, 32,135; Newark, 28,547

notable

In 1787, Delaware was the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution; Dover is the only U.S. state capital with a volunteer fire department.