All states must comply with constitutional requirements related to population while preventing discrimination through the dilution of minority communities.
The total population of Delaware based on the 2020 Census is 989,940, meaning the standard population number for each of the 21 Senate districts is 47,140, and the standard population for each of the 41 House districts is 24,145. In an effort to keep communities and neighborhoods intact, some deviation from these numbers is permitted. For purposes of legislative redistricting, we are generally required to have a plan in which the total population of each district does not deviate from the standard population number by more than +/- 5%.
All states also must comply with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibits redistricting plans from discriminating on the basis of race by diluting the votes of certain minority groups.
In addition, traditional redistricting criteria include:
- Compactness of the district boundaries.
- Contiguity of the districts.
- Preservation of counties and other political subdivisions.
- Preservation of communities of interest.
- Preservation of any existing majority-minority districts (districts where more than half the population is a minority) and creating new majority-minority districts whenever reasonable.
Source: https://www.ncsl.org/research/redistricting/redistricting-criteria.aspx