Kahului, Hawaii

Area Profile

28,288 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Kahului, in Maui County.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signals: opportunity, growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Schools1407th of 2,668 published cities50
Housing affordability3576th of 4,223 published cities56
ClimateTop 8% of 4,223 published cities87
Physical resilience3266th of 4,182 published cities27
Access4175th of 4,226 published cities34
Economic stability2169th of 4,226 published cities60
The quick read

Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 8.8 times median household income, against a historic benchmark near three — while rent takes 18% of it.

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

The nearest major airport is 99 miles away, which is farther than most measured US cities.

At a glance

Population
28,288
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$98,077
Top 20% nationally
Density
1,966/sq mi
14.4 sq mi of land
Median age
43.0
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Maui County
Hawaii
Metro area
Kahului-Wailuku, HI
Nearest major airport
HNL
99 mi · Daniel K Inouye Intl
Median home value
$862,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$13,386$98,077Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,243$37,588Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate8.7%Bottom 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute25.1 minBottom 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher24.6%Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Labor force participation62.5%Top 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$68,720Top 49%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$57,640Top 27%2025 OEWS
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202498k82k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $98,077 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.
Largest occupations — Kahului-Wailuku, HI
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Waiters and Waitresses2,700$82,550
Fast Food and Counter Workers2,590$37,840
Retail Salespersons2,510$39,630
Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners2,260$53,030
Cooks, Restaurant1,770$49,560
General and Operations Managers1,650$108,010

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

26% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 46% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.6 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
5
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
26.5%
Bottom 46% in Hawaii
Reading proficiency
45.7%
Bottom 46% in Hawaii
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Maui High SchoolHawaii Department of Education1,72514.9
Maui Waena Intermediate SchoolHawaii Department of Education1,01514.722%52%
Kahului Elementary SchoolHawaii Department of Education79513.724%35%
Lihikai Elementary SchoolHawaii Department of Education63214.726%38%
Pomaikai Elementary SchoolHawaii Department of Education54514.740%59%

44.6% 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 $1,488 takes 18% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 8.8 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
18.2%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
8.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,488
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$862,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income8.80Top 2%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate64.7%Bottom 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4918,879Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$156$1,488Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$26,656$862,600Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.2%Bottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.2%Bottom 34%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 →

No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

9 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 89°F and January a low of 64°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 16.2 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 21, in the Good band, and one day a year passes 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station KAHULUI AP, 3.2 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND2.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index33.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation16.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low64°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high89°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months91991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index21.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing8°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
1
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

27 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Volcanic activityModerate
EarthquakeHigh
WildfireModerate
Inland floodingHigh
LightningModerate
TsunamiHigh

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

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. 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.

Maui County records 1.3 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, lower than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 4.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 25.6 per 100,000 residents in Maui County.

Homicide
1.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
4.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
25.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
14.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

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 Maui 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 Kahului rather than Kahului 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 99 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Daniel K Inouye IntlHNL99 mi12,360 ft
Kalaeloa (John Rodgers Fld)JRF108 mi8,365 ft
Hilo IntlITO121 mi9,803 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.

Customize your score

What matters to you?

Choose what you weight most heavily. Nothing is saved to an account — your preferences stay in this browser, and the Area Score never changes.

Area Score
Your Score

Select one or more priorities to see how this location scores against them.

Other cities in Kahului-Wailuku, HI

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
KiheiMaui County21,567vs Kahului
WailukuMaui County16,926vs Kahului
Waihee-WaiehuMaui County10,988vs Kahului
LahainaMaui County10,162vs Kahului

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

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
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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.

ZIP codes in Kahului

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
9673227,444$101,739