Town · Sussex County, Delaware

Ocean View, Delaware

Ocean View is a town in Sussex County, Delaware, part of the Seaford, DE metro area. It has 2,851 residents. Ocean View, Delaware has a quality-of-life score of 71 out of 100 (high), ranking #4,510 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Delaware it ranks #14 of 55 cities and towns. It ranks best on effective property tax rate (low), new business applications (high) and mammography screening (high). It ranks worst on dentists (low), home price to income ratio (high) and access to exercise opportunities (low).

71High

Quality-of-life score: #4,510 of 15,651 cities and towns
Delaware: #14 of 55 in DE
Population: 2,851 (2020-2024)
Land area: 3 mi²
Density: 1,008.3 /mi²
FIPS code: 1053920

Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 75 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.

Open in the map

Scores by category

Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.

Safety42#8,990/15,637
Economy78#3,400/15,631
Housing44#8,406/14,977
Health64#5,584/15,609
Healthcare29#11,052/15,650
Environment81#2,931/15,453
Education78#3,520/15,649
Infrastructure67#5,185/15,650
Community61#6,060/15,651
Leisure & amenities82#2,863/15,651

Strengths · Weaknesses

Indicators where Ocean View, Delaware ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Sussex County value” are the county’s: the source publishes no figure for this city or town, and the county holding most of its residents stands in.

Strengths

Effective property tax rate · low0.34%
96/100Delaware 0.54%United States 0.94%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B25090
New business applications · high24.8 /1k
96/100Delaware 56.7 /1kUnited States 16.6 /1k2025U.S. Census BureauSussex County value
Mammography screening · high56.0%
94/100Delaware 55.0%United States 46.0%2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteSussex County value
Child care cost burden · low20.7%
93/100Delaware 22.3%United States 27.9%2023 & 2024University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteSussex County value
Restaurants and bars · high13.7 /10k
92/100Delaware 9.6 /10kUnited States 9.0 /10k2025U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsSussex County value
Flu vaccinations · high53.0%
87/100Delaware 53.0%United States 44.0%2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteSussex County value

Weaknesses

Dentists · low22 /100k
6/100Delaware 46 /100kUnited States 75 /100k2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteSussex County value
Home price to income ratio · high5.6×
14/100Delaware 4.1×United States 4.1×2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B25077
Access to exercise opportunities · low54.8%
14/100Delaware 78.9%United States 84.5%2022 & 2024University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteSussex County value
Dental care shortage · high16.0
18/100Delaware 9.8United States 5.7Oct 2026Health Resources and Services AdministrationSussex County value
Distance to an airport · high78 mi
18/100Delaware 43 miUnited States 33 mi2025Federal Aviation Administration · Bureau of Transportation Statistics · U.S. Census BureauSussex County value
Distance to an Amtrak station · high65 mi
20/100Delaware 26 miUnited States 43 mi2026Federal Aviation Administration · Bureau of Transportation Statistics · U.S. Census BureauSussex County value

Trends

The largest changes over about five years, next to the country's over the same periods.

PopulationRising
2,272 (2015-2019) → 2,851 (2020-2024)
+25%5 yearsCensus table B01003US 328,329,953 → 340,003,797
Rent-burdened householdsImproving
54.5% (2015-2019) → 40.3% (2020-2024)
−14 pts5 yearsCensus table B25070US 49.6% → 51.1%
Child poverty rateImproving
13.7% (2015-2019) → 0.0% (2020-2024)
−14 pts5 yearsCensus table B17001US 16.8% → 15.5%
Uninsured residents (under 65)Worsening
4.3% (2015-2019) → 14.8% (2020-2024)
+11 pts5 yearsCensus table B27010US 10.8% → 9.8%
Bachelor's degree or higherImproving
43.9% (2015-2019) → 52.6% (2020-2024)
+8.7 pts5 yearsCensus table B15003US 32.1% → 35.7%
Home price to income ratioWorsening
4.1× (2015-2019) → 5.6× (2020-2024)
+39%5 yearsCensus table B25077US 3.5× → 4.1×

What changed in five years

How each measure moved between two periods about five years apart, read against whether more or less is better, the published margin of error and the same change in other places.

Over about five years, Ocean View, Delaware improved on 1 of 9 measures with a comparison and declined on 1. 7 moved within the margin of error and 0 barely changed.

Earlier (2015-2019)
Latest (2020-2024)
Lower standingHigher standing

Position is the place's standing among cities and towns: further right is better, whichever way the measure counts.

Improved1

Broadband+5 points90.4% → 95.3%

Declined1

Price / income+1.6×4.1× → 5.6×

All 9 measures

Change of every measure of Ocean View, Delaware between two periods about five years apart
Measure	Before	After	Change	Reading	Favourable vs peers
Average commute time	33.6 min2015-2019	25.2 min2020-2024	−8.4 min	Within the margin of error	97%
Bachelor's degree or higher	43.9%2015-2019	52.6%2020-2024	+8.7 points	Within the margin of error	86%
Broadband subscriptions	90.4%2015-2019	95.3%2020-2024	+5 points	Improved	31%
Effective property tax rate	0.43%2015-2019	0.34%2020-2024	−0.1 points	Within the margin of error	33%
High school diploma or higher	96.5%2015-2019	99.3%2020-2024	+2.8 points	Within the margin of error	67%
Home price to income ratio	4.1×2015-2019	5.6×2020-2024	+1.6×	Declined	8%
Income inequality (Gini index)	0.3972015-2019	0.4502020-2024	+0.053	Within the margin of error	15%
Median household income	$85,4172015-2019	$91,5002020-2024	+7.1%	Within the margin of error	14%
Rent as share of income	32.1%2015-2019	27.1%2020-2024	−5 points	Within the margin of error	83%

“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 14640 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.

Sources: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Values are the latest and the one five years earlier of the same publisher dataset; datasets that changed publisher in between are never compared.

Survey estimates (American Community Survey) compare the two most recent 5-year windows that do not share years, so the margin of error of the difference holds. The 2015-2019 window predates the pandemic and 2020-2024 includes it.
A change counts only when it is larger than 1.645 times the square root of the two standard errors squared, summed (a 90% margin). Measures published without a margin must change by at least 5% to count.
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 15651 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Standing is a percentile among the same places: 0 is the lowest value on the measure (or the worst when lower is better), 100 the best.

Cities and towns like Ocean View, Delaware five years ago that improved

The places whose measures looked most like those of Ocean View, Delaware in the earlier period, ranked by how many measures improved beyond the margin of error, minus how many declined. A comparison of published data, not a forecast and not advice.

For comparison, Ocean View, Delaware itself moved +3.4 points in standing on average over the same 9 measures (standings of all places average about zero).

How the ranking works

Similarity is the root-mean-square difference of standings in the earlier period over the measures most places have. Places are ranked by measures that improved beyond the margin of error minus those that declined (a count that estimation noise in small places cannot inflate), then by the mean change of standing over the measures a place has in both periods. Only places with more improvements than declines and a rise in standing are listed. Standings are relative, so a place can improve in absolute terms and still lose standing.

Who lives here

Age, race and education of residents, from the American Community Survey. Shares are of all residents (age), residents of every origin (race) or adults 25 and over (education).

Age and sex

2,851 residents (±18)

Men
Women

80 and over†
70–79†
60–69†

Income

How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.

Household income

1,376 households (±105)

Ocean View, Delaware
Delaware share

Under $25k17%†237
$25k–50k11%†157
$50k–75k

Homes

Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.

Owners and renters

1,376 households (±105)

Ocean View, Delaware
Delaware share

Own93%1,280
Rent7.0%†96

No change since 2015–2019 is larger than the margin of error.

† Wide margin of error (more than 30% of the estimate): read with care.

Table view

Getting to work

How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.

How people get to work

837 workers (±182)

Ocean View, Delaware
Delaware share

Drive alone67%557
Carpool6.8%†57
Public transit0.0%0

Jobs and pay

What the largest occupations here pay, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes pay by metro area, not by county or city. The metro area page lists its largest occupations and lets you look up any job.

Pay in the Seaford, DE

Local businesses

Employer businesses and sole proprietors by industry, per resident and against the state and the nation. Counts of businesses next to counts of people, not a measure of demand.

The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Sussex County, the county holding most of Ocean View's residents.

Sussex County has 6,411 employer establishments, 243 for every 10,000 residents (0.98× the US rate of 248; 0.85× Delaware's), with 78,541 paid employees at an average annual pay of $51,039. The Census Bureau also counts 24,311 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.

Establishments: 6,411; 24,311 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents: 243; US 248 · Delaware 287
Paid employees: 78,541
Average annual pay: $51,039; US $68,342

Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Sussex County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation

Restaurants and other eating places	585	22.2	1.21×About typical	10,901	$29,176	85
Ambulatory health care services	449	17	0.82×About typical	5,355	$79,906	956
Specialty trade contractors	448	17	1.10×About typical	3,696	$60,190	1,911
Full-service restaurants	317	12	1.56×More than typical	7,405	$31,580	30
Lessors of real estate	314	11.9	0.97×About typical	1,562	$51,786	3,540
Construction of buildings	269	10.2	1.35×More than typical	1,645	$73,047	904
Services to buildings and dwellings	266	10.1	1.49×More than typical	2,899	$42,768	1,627
Limited-service restaurants	195	7.4	0.92×About typical	2,787	$22,921	43
Management, scientific and technical consulting	187	7.1	1.06×About typical	474	$96,042	1,118
Building equipment contractors	181	6.9	1.14×About typical	1,826	$61,859	379
Clothing and accessories stores	181	6.9	1.89×More than typical	1,609	$25,639	197
Offices of physicians	173	6.6	1.01×About typical	2,195	$102,278	187

Rank places for an industry Open Sussex County

County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)

Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 264,046 residents here, 336,755,052 in the United States. County Business Patterns counts establishments in 2023; the Nonemployer Statistics count businesses in 2024.
“More than typical” is a density at least 1.25 times the nation's per resident, “fewer” at most 0.8 times, with at least 10 establishments. It compares counts of businesses with counts of people: it says nothing about demand, incomes, size, quality or profit, and visitors and commuters are not residents.
The Census Bureau adds noise to employment and payroll to protect confidentiality, and withholds some figures: an industry with few establishments can show employees or pay as unavailable.
Industries overlap: a narrower industry (full-service restaurants) is part of a broader one (restaurants), so the rows do not add up.
Industries follow the North American Industry Classification System; the two surveys use different editions (NAICS 2017 and 2022), which this page matches industry by industry.

Federal contracts performed here

In FY2026, an estimated $0 of federal contract obligations were for work performed in Ocean View, Delaware: $0 per resident (US $1,994).

Obligations: $0
Per resident: $0; US $1,994
Sole-source: —; US 30%
Single offer: —; US 8.8%

A signal is a reason to look closer, not evidence of wrongdoing: most sole-source awards are lawful and justified.

Top buying agencies

Top recipients

Spending by fiscal year

7.1KFY2017
-32.5KFY2018
108.4FY2019

What was bought

Source: Federal contract transactions (Federal Procurement Data System) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov), data current to Oct 3, 2026, loaded Oct 3, 2026.

How this is estimated

Agencies report each contract action's place of performance as a county and a ZIP code. A ZIP code's money is split among the cities it covers by the share of its land inside each (Census 2020 ZIP code tabulation areas); the part outside city limits stays with the county.

The place of performance is what the contracting agency reports, often the contractor's office rather than where the work happens.
Shares are of land, not of people or businesses: a ZIP code that is mostly rural land but has its offices in town gives the town less than it should.
ZIP codes that are not mapped areas (post office boxes, the unique ZIP codes of large federal sites and companies) stay with their county, unless one city covers nearly all of it.
Counts of actions and awards include those only partly in Ocean View, Delaware, so they do not add up across cities.

Ocean View, Delaware's figures are part of those of Sussex County, DE ($19.5M in FY2026), never added to them: 0.0% of that total.

Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: Ocean View is mostly in Sussex County.

See federal money in Sussex County

Representation in Congress

Members serving today, with their record in the current Congress (party-unity votes cast with their caucus, roll calls missed). Not a grade.

Ocean View, Delaware is represented in the 119th Congress by these members.

House

Sarah McBrideD-DE · 100% of residentsWith party 98%Missed 0.6%

Senate

Explore Congress The 2026 races

County

A city can lie in several counties. Some indicators are published for counties only: the page marks them.

Sussex County65100% of residents

Metro area

The metro or micro area the city belongs to.

Seaford, DE68

Other cities and towns in Sussex County

Largest first.

Similar cities and towns

Closest indicator profiles across the country (no model: score distances).

Data and sources

Latest published value of each indicator; periods differ by source. Values flagged by their publisher are marked.

PLACES: Local Data for Better HealthCenters for Disease Control and Prevention · release 2025
Local Area Unemployment StatisticsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · release 2025
American Community Survey 5-Year EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2017-2024
Population Estimates ProgramU.S. Census Bureau · release 2025
Small Area Health Insurance EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
Small Area Income and Poverty EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
County Health Rankings & RoadmapsUniversity of Wisconsin Population Health Institute · release 2022-2025+2026-03-supplement

JSON · /api/v1/places/1053920

Scores by category

Strengths · Weaknesses

Strengths

Weaknesses

Trends