Delaware vs New Jersey: two economies side by side

Delaware and New Jersey 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 5, New Jersey on 6 of 11 measures

Indicator	A · DE	B · NJ	Ranks
GDP, 2025	$121.9B	$887.8B	42 · 11
Real GDP growth, 2025	+5.1%	+2.0%	1 · 22
Real growth a year since 2015	+1.7%	+1.7%	29 · 28
GDP per person	$115,043	$92,980	3 · 13
Income per person, 2025	$68,630	$89,720	34 · 7
Real income per person (2017 $)	$55,185	$63,142	39 · 12
Price level (US = 100)	99.8	108.8	20 · 4
Housing costs (US = 100)	102.0	134.3	19 · 3
Unemployment, September 2026	4.6%	4.2%	40 · 32
Population	1,059,952	9,548,215	45 · 11
Population growth a year since 2020	+1.3%	+0.59%	7 · 22

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

DelawareNew Jersey

Fig. 2Unemployment rateMonthly, seasonally adjusted, since 2015

DelawareNew Jersey

Industry mix, 2025

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

Industry	DE	NJ	Gap, pp	Larger in
Finance & insurance	34.4%	6.4%	28.0	DE
Wholesale trade	2.7%	9.2%	6.5	NJ
Professional services	6.0%	9.8%	3.8	NJ
Information	1.3%	4.8%	3.5	NJ
Retail trade	3.7%	5.8%	2.0	NJ
Transportation & warehousing	1.9%	3.7%	1.9	NJ
Real estate	14.1%	15.8%	1.6	NJ
Manufacturing	6.9%	8.5%	1.6	NJ
Health care	7.2%	8.6%	1.4	NJ
Administrative & waste services	2.4%	3.8%	1.4	NJ
Government	8.2%	9.1%	0.9	NJ
Other services	1.2%	2.0%	0.8	NJ
Management of companies	1.7%	2.5%	0.7	NJ
Accommodation & food	2.0%	2.7%	0.7	NJ
Education	0.5%	1.2%	0.7	NJ
Arts & recreation	0.5%	1.0%	0.5	NJ
Agriculture	0.6%	0.1%	0.5	DE
Utilities	1.4%	1.6%	0.2	NJ
Construction	3.3%	3.4%	0.1	NJ
Mining, oil & gas	0.0%	0.1%	0.1	NJ