Census

December 3, 2015. The U.S. Census Bureau released its 2010-2014 American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates on December 3, 2015.  The estimates are based on the annual American Community Survey conducted by the Census Bureau which include social, economic, and detailed housing characteristics of Hawaii’s population.  The Census Bureau releases 5-year data for all census geographic areas down to the block group level.  Almost 9% of Hawaii’s population was surveyed between this 2010 to 2014 period.

Hawaii data is available on our DBEDT website at  https://census.hawaii.gov/acs/acs-2014/

This data release is the first time that ACS users are able to look at trends using non-overlapping time periods, especially for small areas.  These time periods are 2005-2009 and 2010-2014.  Caution must be taken, though, that the area boundaries did not change over the two time periods.  One example of an area that may be compared is the Mililani Town census-designated place (CDP).  The population in the Mililani Town area grew by 2% during this time interval.  The percentage of the population who were elderly increased from about 11% in the earlier time period to 15% in the later one.  At the same time, the median household income (adjusted for inflation) decreased by 5%.  Please note that this data does not include people in the separate area called Mililani Mauka CDP.

Through the use of the census tract data, information by islands may be obtained from the ACS 5-year estimates.

Selected small area rankings

The following analyses are based upon the ranking of the 317 census tracts in Hawaii which had population.  The numbers presented below are averages over the 2010-2014 time period.

Here are some highlights for Hawaii.  Tables included in these highlights display only the 20 top ranking census tracts.  For the complete list and for the margin of errors, see the accompanying EXCEL data file.

• Median household income. Waialae Iki (census tract 4.02) had the highest median household income which was $163,636.  All 48 census tracts that had median household incomes of $100,000 or more were located on the Island of Oahu.  (Table 2)
• Percent foreign-born. Palama (census tract 55) on the Island of Oahu was the most significant census tract for foreign-born population with 60.5% of its population were born in other countries.  This area was followed by Umi Street (census tract 60) with a foreign-born population of 58.5% and Chinatown (census tract 52) with a foreign-born population of 55.3%.  A majority of the top census tracts with foreign-born populations of 50% or more were located in the urban Honolulu area.  It should be noted that although Hanauma Bay (census tract 9800) topped the listing, the total population in that area was less than 10 people.  (Table 9)
• Owner-occupied home value. Eleven census tracts in Hawaii had owner-occupied homes with values averaging a million dollars or more.  Many of these areas were in East Oahu – Portlock (census tract 1.14), Waialae Iki (census tract 4.02), Waialae-Kahala (census tract 5), and Diamond Head (census tract 6).  Neighbor island areas were also on the top of the list included Ha’ena-Hanalei (census tract 401.04) on the Island of Kauai and Wailea (census tract 303.03) and Honokowai (census tract 315.03) on the Island of Maui.  (Table 11)

More Hawaii topic highlights as well as the ranking tables referred to above are available on our DBEDT website.

Source:  U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 2010-2014 American Community Survey 5-year dataset; compiled by the Hawaii State Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism, Research and Economic Analysis Division.