Sussex County, Delaware: Realigning Affluent Suburb county. In 2024, voted R+11%. Republican peak: R+35 in 1984.
Key facts
- 2024 presidential margin
- R+11MIT Election Lab
- Political typology
- Realigning Affluent SuburbAkashic typology
- Population
- 255,6262024 5-year
- Median household income
- $81,4972024 5-year
- White (non-Hispanic)
- 74.1%2024 5-year
- Black
- 9.9%2024 5-year
- Hispanic / Latino
- 11.5%2024 5-year
- Peak Democratic margin
- D+19 in 1884MIT Election Lab
- Peak Republican margin
- R+35 in 1984MIT Election Lab
- Most similar
- Worcester County, MD · similarity 0.97
2024 results by precinct
2024 precinct map of Sussex CountyPrecinct-level 2024 presidential results for Sussex County, with each precinct boundary colored by Democratic-vs-Republican margin.
—
Margin—
Turnout—
Harris +50Trump +50
Real precinct boundaries. Hover for vote totals.
presidential history
Presidential margin, 1876–2024
Democratic minus Republican, by election
| Year | Margin (D minus R) |
|---|---|
| 1876 | +11.6% |
| 1880 | +8.3% |
| 1884 | +19.1% |
| 1888 | −0.8% |
| 1892 | +1.5% |
| 1896 | −8.3% |
| 1900 | −6.3% |
| 1904 | −14.4% |
| 1908 | −7.8% |
| 1912 | +9.5% |
| 1916 | −3.3% |
| 1920 | −7.1% |
| 1924 | −7.6% |
| 1928 | −28.5% |
| 1932 | +8.5% |
| 1936 | +3.2% |
| 1940 | +5.4% |
| 1944 | −5.4% |
| 1948 | −8.4% |
| 1952 | −6.8% |
| 1956 | −9.6% |
| 1960 | −2.9% |
| 1964 | +11.3% |
| 1968 | −11.9% |
| 1972 | −30.4% |
| 1976 | +3.9% |
| 1980 | −9.4% |
| 1984 | −34.9% |
| 1988 | −24.3% |
| 1992 | −2.4% |
| 1996 | +1.9% |
| 2000 | −7.4% |
| 2004 | −21.7% |
| 2008 | −8.6% |
| 2012 | −13.0% |
| 2016 | −22.0% |
| 2020 | −11.2% |
| 2024 | −11.0% |
DemocraticRepublican
38 presidential elections
| Year | Won | Margin | Democratic | Republican | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R | 64,817 | 80,984 | 147,345 | ||
| R | 56,682 | 71,230 | 129,352 | ||
| R | 39,333 | 62,611 | 105,823 | ||
| R | 39,975 | 52,119 | 93,222 | ||
| R | 40,299 | 47,939 | 89,070 | ||
| R | 30,098 | 47,003 | 77,752 | ||
| R | 29,739 | 34,620 | 66,287 | ||
| D | 23,191 | 22,187 | 52,012 | ||
| R | 19,174 | 20,440 | 52,565 | ||
| R | 16,504 | 27,129 | 43,775 | ||
| R | 13,629 | 28,337 | 42,092 | ||
| R | 15,973 | 19,472 | 37,379 | ||
| D | 18,552 | 17,153 | 36,068 | ||
| R | 11,630 | 21,964 | 34,004 | ||
| R | 11,671 | 15,618 | 33,066 | ||
| D | 17,971 | 14,305 | 32,373 | ||
| R | 15,472 | 16,392 | 32,093 | ||
| R | 13,697 | 16,621 | 30,430 | ||
| R | 15,054 | 17,257 | 32,521 | ||
| R | 11,522 | 13,636 | 25,282 | ||
| R | 10,678 | 11,895 | 22,646 | ||
| D | 13,206 | 11,853 | 25,059 | ||
| D | 12,799 | 11,996 | 24,832 | ||
| D | 12,618 | 10,632 | 23,302 | ||
| R | 7,163 | 12,884 | 20,101 | ||
| R | 8,668 | 10,120 | 19,013 | ||
| R | 8,448 | 9,747 | 18,195 | ||
| R | 5,649 | 6,032 | 11,745 | ||
| D | 5,551 | 4,466 | 11,374 | ||
| R | 5,013 | 5,870 | 11,023 | ||
| R | 4,407 | 5,915 | 10,473 | ||
| R | 4,364 | 4,961 | 9,458 | ||
| R | 3,826 | 4,541 | 8,588 | ||
| D | 4,279 | 4,147 | 8,526 | ||
| R | 3,982 | 4,046 | 8,139 | ||
| D | 4,447 | 3,018 | 7,475 | ||
| D | 3,993 | 3,373 | 7,449 | ||
| D | 3,490 | 2,763 | 6,253 |
Demographics
2024 ACS
Race, ethnicity, and ancestry
Click any group to see the ancestries typically reported within it.
Irish
16.8%
German
14.8%
English
14.1%
Italian
8.3%
American
6.8%
Polish
3.7%
Scottish
2.2%
African American
7.9%
Multiple ancestry combinations reported; no single grouping above 1%.
American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander combined.
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release. Hispanic/Latino is an ethnicity that overlaps the race categories, so these shares can total more than 100%. Ancestry is a self-reported, multiple-response item; ancestry percentages do not sum to the parent race percentage.
2024 ACS
Age distribution by sex
Median age: 51.9 in this county, 39.1 nationally
Male
Age
Female
85+
75–84
65–74
55–64
45–54
35–44
25–34
18–24
5–17
<5
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Median household income
Inflation-adjusted dollars
$81,497
Sussex County ranks in the top 25% of US counties.
Sussex County$81,497
Delaware$84,954
United States$80,734
Sussex County ranks in the top 25% of US counties by median household income.
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Poverty rate
All persons below federal poverty line
10.9%
Children face moderate poverty.
Children under 1818.9%
Working age (18–64)9.3%
Seniors (65+)8.1%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Language at home
Population aged 5 and older
87.0%
speak English only
Spanish9.3%
Other Indo-European2.5%
Asian & Pacific Islander0.9%
Other languages0.4%
Source · ACS 5-year estimates, 2024.
2020 religion census
Religious adherents
Adherents per capita by tradition
Source · 2020 US Religion Census. Remaining 65.2% of residents not counted as adherents by any reporting body.
Retiree migration to Sussex County's coastal communities has reshaped its electorate over two decades, and the county delivered an R+11.0 margin in 2024 — its widest Republican gap in recent cycles.
Once reliably Republican — a margin of thirty-five points in 1984 at its widest — Sussex County has trended Democratic. The 2024 margin was eleven points.
A median household income of $81,497 — among the higher at this geographic scale — and a population of 255,626 describe the county. The county's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Worcester County and Warren County.
Most similar counties
Compare two places, side by side
Twelve curated comparisons line up election history, demographics, and the divergence story for two places at a glance. Browse all comparisons →
Cite this page
All citations released under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Akashic Intelligence.
Sussex County, Delaware. Akashic. https://akashic.app/county/10005/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
License: CC BY 4.0
More in Delaware
More realigning affluent suburb counties
Frequently asked questions
How did Sussex County, Delaware vote in 2024?
In 2024, Sussex County, Delaware voted Republican by 11.0 points (R+11), carried by the Republican candidate. Out of 147,345 votes cast, 64,817 went Democratic and 80,984 went Republican.
What is Sussex County, Delaware's political typology?
Akashic places Sussex County, Delaware in the "Realigning Affluent Suburb" typology — College-educated, affluent suburbs — the one bloc moving toward the Democratic Party. The typology is a data-driven cluster built from vote share, vote swing, race and ethnicity, income, language spoken at home, religion, and ancestry. Across 38 elections in the dataset, the county has voted Democratic 11 times, Republican 27 times, and other 0 times.
When did Sussex County, Delaware last vote Democratic?
The most recent presidential election in which Sussex County, Delaware voted Democratic was 1996.
How many people live in Sussex County, Delaware?
Sussex County, Delaware has a population of 255,626 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Sussex County, Delaware?
Median household income in Sussex County, Delaware is $81,497 — above the national median of $80,734. The Delaware state median is $84,954.
What is the political history of Sussex County, Delaware?
Akashic tracks 38 presidential elections in Sussex County, Delaware from 1876 to 2024. Of those, 11 went Democratic and 27 went Republican. The county's typology — "Realigning Affluent Suburb" — captures where that record, its demographics, and its recent swing place it among American communities.