How much federal spending did Kent County, Delaware receive?

Kent County posted a heavy absolute book of $1.8B in FY2025 - $10,011 per capita across 181,851 residents.

How does Kent County's per capita spending compare to the national average?

Kent County's $10,011 sits 36.0% below the $15,647 national average (-19.0% vs Delaware).

What is the population of Kent County, Delaware?

Census estimates put Kent County at 181,851 residents, the denominator behind a high $10,011 intensity.

Kent County

$1.8B in FY2025 - a heavy absolute book at $10,011 per capita.

Delaware · FIPS 10001

Compiled by PlainSpending

Data updated September 2025

In FY2025, Kent County in Delaware posted a dense absolute book of $1.8B ($10,011 per capita across 181,851 residents). That is 36.0% below the national average and 19.0% below the Delaware average. Social Security Administration leads tracked agency share. Statewide per-capita rank: #2 of 3.

Total spending: $1.8B
Per capita: $10,011
vs. national avg: -36.0%
Fiscal year: FY2025

Heavy absolute federal book

Kent County sits #329 of 3,224 counties by total obligations ($1.8B).

Heavy absolute federal book

Kent County posts above-median federal per-capita spending nationally, with spending dominated by Social Security Administration.

National per-capita rank: Top 26%; of 3,232 US counties
Per-capita spending: $10,011
Leading agency: Social Security Administration; 70.8% of tracked spending
Delaware rank: #2 of 3

Understanding Kent County's federal spending

Dense absolute book vs. peers

USASpending.gov (Treasury) records $1.8B in FY2025 place-of-performance awards for Kent County, Delaware (FIPS 10001) - a dense absolute book at $10,011 across 181,851 Census-estimated residents. That intensity is 36.0% below the $15,647 national average.

Inside Delaware ($12.2B statewide / $12,366 per capita), Kent County's high $10,011 sits 19.0% below the state average.

By per-capita federal spending alone, Kent County ranks #2 of 3 Delaware counties.

Spending concentration

A single county rarely dominates a state's federal-spending total, but Kent County is the exception here, pulling in 14.9% of every dollar Delaware received statewide, a concentration usually tied to a major base, medical center, or federal facility.

Reading this number carefully

A per-capita figure this far from the norm is worth a second look before drawing conclusions. Nationally, county-level federal spending concentrates around a small number of drivers: a major military installation, a large VA medical center or federal hospital, a national laboratory, a federal prison, or a small resident population inflating an otherwise ordinary per-capita number. The dataset records dollars by place of performance only, it does not identify which of these applies to Kent County, so this figure is best read as a prompt for further research rather than a stand-alone measure of local prosperity or federal favoritism. Readers comparing Kent County to neighboring counties should also check population size before assuming the gap reflects total dollars rather than a small denominator.

Federal spending is attributed by place of performance, not recipient headquarters. See our methodology for the full population-source, attribution, and data-vintage rules.

How Kent County Compares

Source: USASpending.gov FY2025 + U.S. Census Bureau population estimates.

Population: 181,851 (U.S. Census Bureau estimate) - the denominator behind the per-capita figures above.

Leading Federal Agencies in Kent County

Source: USASpending.gov FY2025, aggregated by awarding agency.

Among the 3,224 US counties with agency-level spending data, Social Security Administration is the most common leading agency nationally, topping 89.7% of agency-tracked counties.

These 3 agencies together account for $1.5B (81.3%) of Kent County's $1.8B in total tracked federal spending -- the remainder is spread across smaller awarding agencies not individually broken out in this dataset.

All 3 individually-tracked agencies are shown above - Kent County has no smaller residual awarding agencies broken out beyond this set, a compact agency footprint rather than a long tail of minor awardees.

Read the agency breakdown as a table

Agency	Spending	Share
Social Security Administration	$1.0B	70.8%
Department of Veterans Affairs	$228.0M	15.4%
Department of Education	$204.0M	13.8%

How Kent County Ranks Nationally

Per-capita federal spending vs. all US counties

All 3,232 US counties, FY2025

$10,011 Higher than most higher than 74% of 3,224 US counties

all US counties, per-capita spending, bucketed by value

Each bar is a $1K-wide band; taller bars hold more US counties. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source USASpending.gov FY2025 + U.S. Census Bureau population estimates

Nearby Counties With Similar Federal Spending

Counties with per-capita federal spending closest to Kent County's $10,011 - prioritizing Delaware peers first.

Sussex County

Delaware

$11,718 per capita

$2.8B total

New Castle County

Delaware

$7,519 per capita

$4.3B total

Surry County

Virginia

$10,016 per capita

$65.7M total

New Kent County

Virginia

$10,002 per capita

$229.5M total

Escambia County

Florida

$10,025 per capita

$3.2B total

Compare states side-by-side in the compare tool →

Nationwide counties with similar per-capita or total federal spending

Two peer sets outside Delaware - per-resident intensity and total obligation volume, distinct from the same-state neighbors above.

Similar per-capita spending

Nearest out-of-state counties by federal spending per resident ($10,011 here).

Similar total federal spending

Nearest out-of-state counties by total obligations ($1.8B here).

Counties with fewer than 10,000 residents are excluded from the nationwide comparison corpus.

Data Source: USASpending.gov (U.S. Department of the Treasury), Fiscal Year 2025. Population denominators are U.S. Census Bureau vintage estimates. County-level spending includes all federal awards with place of performance in this county; OMB budget categorizations are reflected at the agency level.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and presented.

Verify with USASpending.gov → Verify population with U.S. Census Bureau →

Compiled by PlainSpending, Federal Spending Editorial Process

Kent County

How Kent County Compares

Per-capita federal spending: Kent County vs. Delaware and the nation

Leading Federal Agencies in Kent County

Top awarding agencies in Kent County, FY2025

How Kent County Ranks Nationally

Nearby Counties With Similar Federal Spending

Nationwide counties with similar per-capita or total federal spending

Similar per-capita spending

Similar total federal spending