Delaware

1,343

engineers a year
at China’s rate

Source: IPEDS Completions, 3-yr avg AY 2022–25 (NCES; 2024–25 provisional), bachelor’s degrees, CIP 14 + 11; China 33.2%: PRC Ministry of Education, 2022 bachelor’s graduates by discipline (NSF NCSES S&E Indicators Fig. HED-30: 32.8%, 2020); Population: Census NST-EST2025.

← #12 Montana#13 of 51#14 Illinois →

Delaware at China’s rate would graduate 2,251 engineers a year. It graduates 908.

Delaware produces 908 engineering and computer science bachelor's degrees a year out of 6,781 total, a mid-pack engineering producer, from 4 institutions. At China's rate it would produce 2,251. Output is growing (+10.4% over three years). Gap Score: 40% of the China benchmark. Its own economy is projected to open 1,320 engineering, computing and technician jobs a year through 2034; in-state degrees, associate and bachelor's together, cover 80% of them.

Engineering + CS share of bachelor’s degrees

13.4%

Above the national 12.3%; 40% of the way to China’s 33.2%.

Missing engineers a year at China’s rate

1,343

787 at a conservative 25%, and 448 at 20%.

Three-year trend, share of degrees

12.714.313.2

Output up 10.4% in degrees, 2022-23 to 2024-25.

National rank by share

#13

of 51 by share; #32 per capita, 127 missing engineers per 100k residents (pop. 1.1M).

What they study

40% eng

60% computer science. 14% of the state’s eng+CS output is at the associate level, the two-year pathway.

Job openings a year, engineers + computing + technicians

1,320

80% covered by the state’s own degrees, all levels; #8 of 51 on coverage.

The gap against China’s benchmark

Delaware, today13.4%

United States, today12.3%

China benchmark33.2%

1,343 missing engineering and CS bachelor’s degrees a year at China’s 33.2% rate.

Three-year trend: eng+CS share of degrees

2022–232023–242024–25

Delaware is missing 1,343 engineers a year at China's rate, roughly 2x the annual output of University of Delaware.

Where Delaware’s engineers are made.

4 institutions produce engineering or computer science bachelor’s degrees in Delaware. The top 4 account for 100% of output.

Every producing institution. Circle area = eng+CS bachelor’s degrees per year

University of Delaware alone is 59% of the state's output.Swipe the map →

Top producers

#	Institution	Eng+CS / yr	% of its degrees
1	University of Delaware	540	12.4%
2	Wilmington University	336	22.3%
3	Delaware State University	32	5.1%
4	Goldey-Beacom College	0	0.2%

These 4 institutions are the state's entire eng+CS output. Bachelor's degrees, matching the state totals above. IPEDS Completions C2023–C2025, first majors; 3-yr average.

Jobs vs. degrees

Delaware's own labor-market projection, 2024–2034, for engineers, computer occupations and engineering technicians, against the degrees the state produces at every level.

Openings against output

Job openings per year (growth + replacement)1,320

Eng + CS degrees produced per year (associate + bachelor’s)1,061

of which net new jobs per year (growth only)128

Where the openings are

Occupation	Openings / yr
Software Developers	240
Computer Systems Analysts	200
Computer User Support Specialists	130
Computer Occupations, All Other	80
Civil Engineers	70
Computer Network Architects	60

Coverage: degrees ÷ openings

80%

of Delaware's projected openings are covered by its own degrees. Rank #8 of 51; U.S.: 54%. Demand: 125 openings per 100k residents (U.S.: 143).

Delaware's colleges cover 80% of the engineering, computing and technician jobs its economy opens every year. The other 259 a year, 48% of the annual output of University of Delaware, must be imported, retrained, or left unfilled.

Openings are the state labor agency’s own 10-year projection: new jobs plus replacing workers who retire or leave the field (BLS method). Not every opening goes to a new graduate, so this is a coverage measure; it does not count vacant positions. Occupations: engineers (SOC 17-2), computer occupations (SOC 15-12) and engineering technicians (SOC 17-3, the associate-degree tier), the jobs CIP 14 + 11 degrees feed; degrees here include associate degrees to match. Source: Delaware labor-market projections via Projections Central (U.S. Dept. of Labor).

Delaware's $1B biologics plant and a blocked 1.2 GW data center

Delaware's largest projects of 2024-2026 are biopharma manufacturing (Merck, Incyte) backed by the largest Strategic Fund grants in over a decade, plus a contested 1.2 GW data center campus outside Delaware City. It is a small state with few megaprojects and roughly 900 engineering and CS bachelor's a year to staff them.

Merck biologics center, Wilmington (CRISP)

$30.2M grant

Merck broke ground April 2025 on a $1 billion, 470,000 sq ft biologics plant at Chestnut Run, promising 500+ full-time jobs and ~4,000 construction jobs, with a possible expansion adding 1,500 more. The Council on Development Finance approved a $30.2 million Strategic Fund grant in February 2025, the largest state grant in 14 years, before Merck had even picked the site. Labs are due by 2028, production by 2030.

Delaware Business Now; Merck; Delaware Business Times

Starwood Project Washington, Delaware City

1.2 GW

Starwood Digital Ventures proposed an 11-building, ~6 million sq ft, 1.2 GW data center campus on ~580 acres, pitched as a $7 billion facility with 700 permanent jobs (up from an earlier 250 estimate) and $9.7 billion in construction output. DNREC ruled in February 2026 that its 516 diesel generators make it a prohibited heavy industrial use under the Coastal Zone Act; the state board upheld the denial in March 2026. Starwood dropped its court appeal in July 2026, so the project cannot proceed as designed, and Gov. Meyer signed stricter data center rules in August.

Spotlight Delaware; WHYY; Delaware Public Media

Incyte expansion, Wilmington

~$15M grants

Incyte bought two former Bracebridge towers downtown for $47.5 million in May 2024 with a state package of nearly $15 million, promising roughly 800 employees at the new site and salaries of $90,000 to $200,000. In February 2026 Incyte agreed to sell both towers and lease back only about 80,000 square feet for up to 200 employees. R&D and technical teams stay at the Augustine Cut-Off campus.

Spotlight Delaware

The drain.

Delaware's growth comes mostly from retirees moving in: it ranks near the top nationally for net brain drain, and the state Chamber's own internship program is built around the premise that most college students leave after graduation.

Net brain drain rank

#2 of 50

17.2-point gap in share highly educated between leavers and entrants, second only to North Dakota, U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee 'Losing Our Minds' (2019, 2017 data)

Grads leaving Delaware

71%

share of college students who move out of state after graduation, per the State Chamber's Intern Delaware program (Leadership Delaware, 2025)

Retirees vs. workforce

+92%

growth in residents 65+ since 2006 while labor force participation fell from 62% (2019) to 59% (2024), Delaware State Chamber 'Trends Shaping Delaware's Future' via WHYY (2025)

Sources: JEC Social Capital Project 2019; Leadership Delaware / Intern Delaware; WHYY, Apr 2025

Who’s covering it.

Reporters already cover this, but no one has combined it into a single number the way the Index does.

OutletStoryWhat it covers

Spotlight Delaware

Delaware City data center environmental denial upheld by state board

Mar 2026. Coastal Zone board unanimously upholds DNREC's rejection of the 1.2 GW Project Washington; the state's one AI-scale project is now headed to court for years.

WHYY

Proposed Delaware City data center hits major setback from environmental regulators

Feb 2026. DNREC finds the campus's 516 diesel generators would be the state's largest NOx source after the refinery, stalling the 6 million sq ft project and its promised jobs.

Spotlight Delaware

Delaware data center developer launches PR campaign to boost project

Oct 2025. Starwood's ads claim 700 permanent jobs and $9.7B in construction output; an economist and a county councilman question the numbers.

Delaware Public Media

'It's craziness': Plan for vast data center dominates energy stakeholders' panel

Jul 2025. Legislators balk at a load equal to twice Delaware's households for 200-500 six-figure jobs, framing the state's data center debate as ratepayers vs. tech employment.

WHYY

Delaware's aging population, shrinking workforce and rising costs signals a pivotal economic shift, report warns

Apr 2025. State Chamber report: retirees up 92% since 2006 and labor participation down to 59%, the demographic backdrop for every engineering hire.

Delaware Public Media

Gov. Meyer, Delaware Prosperity Partnership launch new effort to attract businesses to First State

Aug 2026. $1.36M Innovate Delaware hub targets fintech, chemicals, clean energy and biopharma startups; the governor notes one in two new Delaware jobs is in healthcare, not engineering.

The fix, in Delaware.

Add service to SEED

Delaware Tech's SEED scholarship already makes tuition free for any Delawarean; the state's associate share of eng+CS output is only 14%. Layer a Digital ROTC track on SEED: engineering-technology and cybersecurity students trade a two-year Delaware service commitment (Merck, Incyte, Bloom, DNREC, Dover AFB) for stipends and guaranteed placement.

Tie Strategic Fund grants to pipeline

Merck's $30.2M grant, the largest in 14 years, and Incyte's ~$15M came with job counts but no local-hiring pipeline, and Incyte has since cut its downtown plan from about 800 jobs to 200. Condition future Council on Development Finance awards on funding Digital ROTC seats and co-op slots for the technicians and engineers those plants will need by 2028-2030.

Make UD engineers stay

UD produces 540 of the state's 908 engineering and CS bachelor's a year, and the Workforce Development Board is already funding yearlong co-ops for Lerner business students. Extend the model to the College of Engineering with service-for-tuition: state-paid final year for grads who work three years in Delaware, aimed squarely at the 71% who leave.

What Digital ROTC would fund

Digital ROTC: federal student loans that cover two years of engineering, computer science, or cybersecurity school at a community college, whether those years end in an associate degree or transfer into a bachelor’s program. The loans are forgiven in full after 24 to 36 months of service in government technology roles. In Delaware, 14% of engineering-track credentials are associate degrees today. Digital ROTC is built to expand that community-college route.

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