How much federal spending did New Castle County, Delaware receive?

New Castle County posted a heavy absolute book of $4.3B in FY2025 - $7,519 per capita across 570,719 residents.

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

New Castle County's $7,519 sits 51.9% below the $15,647 national average (-39.2% vs Delaware).

What is the population of New Castle County, Delaware?

New Castle County has a population of 570,719 according to Census Bureau estimates. This population figure is used to calculate the per capita federal spending of $7,519.

New Castle County

$4.3B in FY2025 - a heavy absolute book at $7,519 per capita.

Delaware · FIPS 10003

Compiled by PlainSpending

Data updated September 2025

In FY2025, New Castle County in Delaware posted a dense absolute book of $4.3B ($7,519 per capita across 570,719 residents). That is 51.9% below the national average and 39.2% below the Delaware average. Social Security Administration leads tracked agency share. Statewide per-capita rank: #3 of 3.

Total spending: $4.3B
Per capita: $7,519
vs. national avg: -51.9%
Fiscal year: FY2025

Heavy absolute federal book

New Castle County sits #168 of 3,224 counties by total obligations ($4.3B).

Heavy absolute federal book

New Castle County posts below-median federal per-capita spending nationally, with spending concentrated almost entirely in Social Security Administration.

National per-capita rank: Top 63%; of 3,232 US counties
Per-capita spending: $7,519
Leading agency: Social Security Administration; 86.1% of tracked spending
Delaware rank: #3 of 3

Understanding New Castle County's federal spending

Dense absolute book vs. peers

USASpending.gov (Treasury) records $4.3B in FY2025 place-of-performance awards for New Castle County, Delaware (FIPS 10003) - a dense absolute book at $7,519 across 570,719 Census-estimated residents. That intensity is 51.9% below the $15,647 national average.

Inside Delaware, where statewide federal spending reached $12.2B ($12,366 per capita), New Castle County's $7,519 per resident is 39.2% below the state average.

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

Spending concentration

A single county rarely dominates a state's federal-spending total, but New Castle County is the exception here, pulling in 35.1% 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 New Castle 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 New Castle 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 New Castle County Compares

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

Population: 570,719 (U.S. Census Bureau estimate) - the denominator behind the per-capita figures above.

Leading Federal Agencies in New Castle 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 $3.5B (80.7%) of New Castle County's $4.3B 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 - New Castle 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	$3.0B	86.1%
Department of Veterans Affairs	$278.0M	8%
Department of Health and Human Services	$202.9M	5.9%

How New Castle County Ranks Nationally

Per-capita federal spending vs. all US counties

All 3,232 US counties, FY2025

$7,519 Around the middle higher than 37% 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 New Castle County's $7,519 - prioritizing Delaware peers first.

Kent County

Delaware

$10,011 per capita

$1.8B total

Sussex County

Delaware

$11,718 per capita

$2.8B total

Madison County

Missouri

$7,519 per capita

$94.9M total

Shawano County

Wisconsin

$7,517 per capita

$307.3M total

Lake County

Ohio

$7,521 per capita

$1.7B 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 ($7,519 here).

Similar total federal spending

Nearest out-of-state counties by total obligations ($4.3B 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

New Castle County

How New Castle County Compares

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

Leading Federal Agencies in New Castle County

Top awarding agencies in New Castle County, FY2025

How New Castle 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