Delaware, DE

Delaware is a state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic and Southern regions of the United States. The state is named after Delaware Bay and River, which were named for Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr (1577–1618).

Population estimates by the Census Bureau for 2005 place the population of Delaware at 843,524.

Despite being the 45th most populous state, it is the seventh most densely populated state, with a population density of 320 more people per square mile than the national average, ranking ahead of states such as Florida, California, and Texas.

Geography

Delaware is 96 miles long and ranges from 9 to 35 miles across, totaling 1,954 square miles and making it the second-smallest state in the United States after Rhode Island.

Delaware is bounded to the north by Pennsylvania, to the east by the Delaware River, Delaware Bay, New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean and to the west and south by Maryland.

Small portions of Delaware are also situated on the far, or eastern, side of the Delaware River Estuary, and these small parcels share land boundaries with New Jersey.

The state of Delaware, together with the Eastern Shore counties of Maryland and two counties of Virginia, form the Delmarva Peninsula, a geographical unit stretching far down the Mid-Atlantic Coast.

The definition of the northern boundary of the state is highly unusual.

Most of the boundary between Delaware and Pennsylvania is defined by an arc extending 12 miles (19 km) from the cupola of the courthouse in New Castle, and is referred to as the Twelve-Mile Circle.

This is the only true-arc political boundary in the United States. This border extends all of the way to the low-tide mark on the New Jersey shore, which continues down the shoreline until it again reaches the twelve-mile arc in the south; then the boundary continues in a more conventional way in the middle of the main channel (thalweg) of the Delaware River Estuary.

A portion of this arc extends into Maryland to the west, and the remaining western border is a tangent to this arc that runs a bit to the east.

The Wedge of land between the arc and the Maryland border was claimed by both Delaware and Pennsylvania until 1921, when Delaware's claim was confirmed.

Delaware is subdivided into three counties: from north to south, New Castle, Kent County and Sussex.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Delaware".