Delaware vs Maryland: two economies side by side

Delaware and Maryland share a border. Here are the two economies on the same measures, with the rank of each among 51 states and DC.

MideastDelaware leads on 6, Maryland on 5 of 11 measures

Indicator	A · DE	B · MD	Ranks
GDP, 2025	$121.9B	$567.0B	42 · 18
Real GDP growth, 2025	+5.1%	+0.81%	1 · 46
Real growth a year since 2015	+1.7%	+1.4%	29 · 34
GDP per person	$115,043	$90,501	3 · 17
Income per person, 2025	$68,630	$82,387	34 · 11
Real income per person (2017 $)	$55,185	$61,111	39 · 16
Price level (US = 100)	99.8	105.0	20 · 8
Housing costs (US = 100)	102.0	121.1	19 · 10
Unemployment, September 2026	4.6%	3.9%	40 · 27
Population	1,059,952	6,265,347	45 · 19
Population growth a year since 2020	+1.3%	+0.28%	7 · 35

Highlighted: the higher value, or the lower one for prices and unemployment. BEA (GDP, income, price parities), BLS (unemployment).

Fig. 1Real GDP, index 2015 = 100Chained 2017 dollars

DelawareMaryland

Fig. 2Unemployment rateMonthly, seasonally adjusted, since 2015

DelawareMaryland

Industry mix, 2025

Share of each state’s GDP. Sorted by the gap between the two.

Industry	DE	MD	Gap, pp	Larger in
Finance & insurance	34.4%	4.6%	29.8	DE
Government	8.2%	20.1%	11.9	MD
Professional services	6.0%	9.9%	3.9	MD
Information	1.3%	4.0%	2.7	MD
Construction	3.3%	5.9%	2.6	MD
Wholesale trade	2.7%	5.2%	2.5	MD
Retail trade	3.7%	5.4%	1.7	MD
Manufacturing	6.9%	5.3%	1.6	DE
Real estate	14.1%	15.6%	1.5	MD
Other services	1.2%	2.3%	1.1	MD
Education	0.5%	1.5%	1.0	MD
Accommodation & food	2.0%	2.9%	0.9	MD
Arts & recreation	0.5%	1.2%	0.8	MD
Management of companies	1.7%	1.0%	0.7	DE
Administrative & waste services	2.4%	3.1%	0.7	MD
Health care	7.2%	7.7%	0.6	MD
Transportation & warehousing	1.9%	2.3%	0.4	MD
Agriculture	0.6%	0.2%	0.4	DE
Utilities	1.4%	1.6%	0.2	MD
Mining, oil & gas	0.0%	0.1%	0.1	MD