9 Delaware Myths Delawareans Are Tired of Correcting

More than two million businesses are registered in Delaware, according to the state’s Division of Corporations, and fewer than 1.1 million people live there.

The paperwork outnumbers the people.

These are the Delaware myths Delawareans are tired of correcting.

1. Smallest State?

Delaware picks up the “smallest state” label more often than any other U.S. state does.

That’s the wrong state.

Rhode Island holds that title, at 1,545 square miles against Delaware’s 2,489, per the U.S. Census Bureau.

Delaware still ranks as the second-smallest state in the country, with Rhode Island the only one smaller.

Blame the confusion on Rhode Island staying out of the conversation.

2. Wilmington, the Capital?

Wilmington is Delaware’s largest city, home to 73,512 people, according to the Census Bureau.

Not the capital.

Dover holds that instead, with 40,592 residents.

Size alone never decides a capital.

Dover sits roughly in the middle of the state, an hour south of Wilmington on U.S. Route 13.

Many Delawareans only pass through it for the Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) or the legislature.

3. No Income Tax at All?

Delaware taxes income on a sliding scale that runs from 2.2% up to 6.6% once taxable income clears $60,000, per the state’s Division of Revenue.

That reputation doesn’t reach paychecks.

A Delaware paycheck loses money to the state well before any grocery run does.

Retirees get a break the paycheck crowd doesn’t, since Social Security benefits stay untaxed statewide.

4. Just a Tax Dodge?

Delaware is the leading jurisdiction for publicly traded U.S. companies, and out-of-staters assume the whole draw is dodging taxes.

That’s not the pitch.

More than 2 million business entities are registered in Delaware, and the state’s Division of Corporations says plainly it isn’t a tax haven.

Companies come for the Court of Chancery’s specialized judges and decades of predictable case law, not a lower tax bill.

About 67.6% of Fortune 500 companies keep their legal home in Delaware, without moving a single employee there.

Many of them never open an office in the state at all.

5. Tax-Free Car Deals?

Shoppers who hear Delaware skips sales tax figure a car purchase rides that same exemption.

The savings stop short.

The state charges a 5.25% document fee on a vehicle’s purchase price or its National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) book value, whichever runs higher.

A $30,000 car still owes Delaware about $1,575 before the plates go on.

Buyers who cross state lines chasing Delaware’s tax-free name often find the fee waiting for them at the DMV counter anyway.

6. Free Beaches?

Delaware's tax-free branding follows visitors right onto the sand, and many expect beach access to come with the same deal.

State beaches still charge you.

Delaware State Parks charges a $10 daily entrance fee for residents and $20 for out-of-state visitors at ocean parks like Cape Henlopen and Delaware Seashore.

That fee runs from March 1 through November 30, covering the entire beach season.

7. No Tolls Either?

Drivers crossing Delaware's sliver of I-95 often assume a state this small can't charge much of anything.

Wrong again.

The Delaware Turnpike, the stretch of I-95 running through the state, charges $5 per passenger vehicle at the Newark toll plaza.

Drivers pay it every trip through Delaware's short slice of I-95, no matter how small the state looks on a map.

E-ZPass doesn't even earn a discount there, since the cash rate and the electronic rate match.

8. First State, First Colony?

Delaware's "The First State" license plates lead many people to assume it was America's first colony.

The nickname means something else.

Delaware earned it by ratifying the U.S. Constitution before any other state, on December 7, 1787, eleven years after declaring independence from Britain and Pennsylvania alike.

Delaware and Pennsylvania shared one governor from 1682 until the two split for good on June 15, 1776.

Delaware had run a separate legislature since 1704, but the two colonies stayed tied to one executive for another seventy-two years.

Ratification made Delaware first to sign, not first to arrive.

9. Named for the Tribe?

Delaware sounds like it came straight from the Lenape people who lived along its rivers before European settlers arrived.

It runs backwards.

The Delaware River and Delaware Bay carry the name of Lord De La Warr, an English nobleman who served as one of Virginia's earliest colonial governors.

European colonists later called the Lenape people living along that river the "Delaware" tribe, borrowing the name back.

Several Lenape nations today, including the Delaware Nation and the Delaware Tribe of Indians, still carry that borrowed name in their official titles.

The name has stuck for centuries, longer than anyone remembers the colonial governor behind it.

Delaware's Surprisingly Small Population

Fewer than 1.1 million people live in Delaware, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2025 population estimate.

That's fewer residents than live in San Jose, California, the city anchoring Silicon Valley.

More than half of that population, 588,026 people, lives in New Castle County alone.