ZIP code 19938

ZIP 19938 is a mid-size town in Kent County, Delaware, with 9,867 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #36 of 68 ranked by population — larger than 47% of them. The median age here is 37.4 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly younger profile than the country as a whole. Places under 65,000 residents only appear in the five-year release, never the one-year file, so these values pool sixty months of responses and lag the current year by design.

Households in ZIP 19938 earn a median of $96,338 a year, 22.7% above the national figure of $78,538. Median household income counts every pre-tax dollar arriving at an address — wages, self-employment, Social Security, pensions, interest and public assistance — for everyone living there, so multi-earner households pull the figure up even where individual pay is modest. Poverty reaches 5.5% of residents here, less than half the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 19938 is valued at $335,800, 10.7% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,624 a month, 15.5% above the national figure, or roughly $19,488 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 20.2% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 3.5×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 88.5% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, an owner-dominated market where rental listings are scarce and rent medians rest on a thin sample. Rent is reported gross — contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities — which is why it runs above the advertised price on a listing for the same unit.

Every value on this page is published directly by the Census for this area — nothing is modelled or interpolated. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.

ZIP 19938 is tabulated inside Kent County, Delaware, one of 17 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 68 across Delaware. Population sits in the small-town band, typically one main street plus the addresses that feed into it. County assignment on this page follows the largest share of the ZIP's land area, which matters where a delivery route crosses a county line: mail addressed to 19938 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 19938 reports a median household income of $96,338, 24% above the $77,790 county median, and 21% above the $79,698 typical DE ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $335,800, 19% above the county figure and 13% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,624 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

Delaware charges 0% statewide, and no local sales tax is layered on top, so the state rate is the full amount collected in 19938.

Everything above comes from the Census Bureau American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates for this ZIP Code Tabulation Area, with sales tax rates traced to the state revenue agency. Five-year estimates pool sixty months of responses, so they are stable enough to compare 19938 with its neighbours but always trail the current year, and any value the Census suppressed for sample size is shown as unpublished rather than filled in with a model.