Hawaii County, HI

County Profile

205,769 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Hawaii County, HI.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

54out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 23% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 21% of 1,255 counties70
GrowthTop 15% of 1,226 counties69
Housing affordability1194th of 1,255 counties57
Climate1134th of 1,254 counties55
Physical resilience1173rd of 1,255 counties18
Access744th of 1,255 counties77
Economic stability1044th of 1,255 counties38
The quick read

Hawaii County ranks in the top 21% of published profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 4.0% and median household income of $78,639.

Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 6.6 times median household income, against a historic benchmark near three — while rent takes 23% of it.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by inland flooding, earthquake and volcanic activity.

At a glance

Population
205,769
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$78,639
Top 20% nationally
Density
51/sq mi
4028.4 sq mi of land
Median age
44.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Hawaii County
Hawaii
Metro area
Hilo-Kailua, HI
Nearest major airport
ITO
31 mi · Hilo Intl
Median home value
$519,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.0% is lower than 58% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 0.3% over the past year, to 88,699 employed residents.

31% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 80% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$2,560$78,639Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,197$39,739Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate14.9%Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute29.2 minTop 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher31.4%Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment88,699Top 29%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)3.1%Top 19%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.3%Top 38%June 2026
Labor force92,363Top 29%June 2026
Labor force participation56.5%Bottom 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.7%Top 18%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.0%Bottom 42%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/067.32.5
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.0% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202479k68k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $78,639 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.

19% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 36% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.2 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
55
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
18.8%
Reading proficiency
35.9%
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Kealakehe High SchoolHawaii Department of Education1,40116.1
Waiakea High SchoolHawaii Department of Education1,18315.4
Hilo High SchoolHawaii Department of Education1,17015.8
Keaau High SchoolHawaii Department of Education1,04114.9
Konawaena High SchoolHawaii Department of Education95518.0
Kealakehe Elementary SchoolHawaii Department of Education92414.77%17%
Waiakea Intermediate SchoolHawaii Department of Education85715.622%47%
Keaau Elementary SchoolHawaii Department of Education82914.817%29%
Pahoa High & Intermediate SchoolHawaii Department of Education74512.617%42%
Hawaii Academy of Arts & Science PCS · charterHawaii Department of Education73815.719%44%
Waikoloa Elementary and Middle SchoolHawaii Department of Education73212.420%37%
Waiakea Elementary SchoolHawaii Department of Education70615.032%45%

58.9% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Hawaii’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,510 takes 23% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 6.6 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
23.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
6.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,510
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$519,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income6.60Top 2%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate74.0%Bottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±12390,735Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$66$1,510Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$16,515$519,300Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income23.0%Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate18.4%Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
69/ 100
Top 15% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, measured from 2020 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has grown 5% since 2020, reaching 209,790 in 2024.

Permitting has turned upward after moving the other way the year before.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 6% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 5.7 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
1,182
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
5.7
Top 25% nationally
Year over year
+7%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
6.1%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024210k201k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
2020202120222023202420251k870
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+41%).

Weather & climate

0 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 58°F and January a low of 35°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 14.3 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 21, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

20°40°60°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station MAUNA LOA 5 NNE, 6.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND2.4"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index33.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation14.3"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low35°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high58°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months01991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index21.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing7°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
21
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
33
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

18 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, earthquake and volcanic activity.

Volcanic activityHigh
EarthquakeHigh
Inland floodingHigh
WildfireElevated
TsunamiElevated

Low or minimal exposure: lightning, landslide, hurricane, coastal flooding, drought, ice storm, tornado, hail, cold wave, strong wind, winter weather.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Hawaii County records 3.6 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 5.3 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 17.8 per 100,000 residents in Hawaii County.

Homicide
3.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
5.3
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
17.8
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
15.9
per 100,000 residents

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Hawaii County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Hawaii County rather than Hawaii County itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

1 major airport lies within 100 miles, the nearest 31 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Hilo IntlITO31 mi9,803 ft
Daniel K Inouye IntlHNL197 mi12,360 ft
Kalaeloa (John Rodgers Fld)JRF204 mi8,365 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.