Every number you’ve always wanted to know about Hawaii

Have you ever wondered how many tourists would rate their visit to Kauai island as excellent? What is Hawaii’s average daily hotel rate? How many visits were there to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park?

If your questions involve numbers, the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) will help you find your answers as it released today the 2017 edition of the “State of Hawaii Data Book.”

The state’s Data Book is the most comprehensive statistical book about Hawaii in a single compilation. With more than 800 data tables, classified into 24 sections, it covers a broad range of statistical information in areas such as population, education, environment, economics, energy, business enterprises, government, tourism and transportation.

“The Data Book is the most popular item on the DBEDT website, and this year marks the 50th edition,” said DBEDT Director Luis P. Salaveria. “DBEDT researchers collected and compiled data from all private and public sources about all aspects of Hawaii and put them together to create this comprehensive source of information for anyone who wants to know Hawaii.”

“We also produced two by-products from this Data Book to provide more detailed information for users. We extracted tables that have time series data and compiled a separate collection called, Data Book Time Series. We also extracted data from the Data Book and added more to produce a county level data report called, ‘County Social, Business, and Economic Trends in Hawaii,’ which will be released later this year,” said State Economist Dr. Eugene Tian.

Some of the interesting data in this newest edition show that:

The median age of Hawaii’s population in 2017 was 39 years old, with the median age of the military personnel subpopulation at 27.9 years old and median age of civilians at 40 years old. (Table 1.31).

For fall 2016, there was a net migration of 1,788 freshmen 4-year college students out of Hawaii, meaning more new students left Hawaii to go to 4-year colleges than came to Hawaii to attend 4-year colleges. (Table 3.27).

During the 2017 annual Audubon society’s Christmas bird count, the Zebra Dove was the most commonly spotted bird in the Honolulu area with a 2017 count of 2,317. (Table 5.57).

In 2016, 99 percent of visitors from the U.S. rated their overall experiences on Kauai as “excellent” or “above average,” making Kauai the highest rated island among Americans for visitor satisfaction. Japanese visitors rated their overall experiences highest on Oahu, with 98.6 percent of Japanese visitors rating their experiences “excellent” or “above average.” (Table 7.16).

In 2017, there were 6,002,950 visits to National Parks and National Monuments in Hawaii. The most popular park was Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, which had 2,016,702 visits in 2017. (Table 7.41).

There were 2,455 participants in the 2017 Ironman Triathlon World Championship held in Kailua-Kona, the largest number of participants in the race’s history. (Table 7.57).

Tax Freedom Day, the day when the nation, as a whole, earned enough money to pay off its total tax bill for the year, occurred on April 19, 2018, for the United States, as a whole, and April 20, 2018, for Hawaii. This is a slight worsening for Hawaii as the 2017 Tax Freedom Day was April 19th but slight improvement for the United States as the 2017 Tax Freedom Day was April 23rd. (Table 9.10).

Of the $1.8 billion U.S. Department of Defense contracts awarded in federal fiscal year 2017 (Oct. 1 to Sept. 30), 49.4 percent, or $887.7 million, were awarded to small businesses. This is down from the 57.6 percent, or $1.1 billion, of the $1.9 billion awarded in fiscal year 2016. (Table 10.25).

Since peaking in 2014 at 193,565 average monthly number of individuals served, the food stamp program (SNAP) enrollment has since decreased over the last 3 years to average number of individuals served at 170,850 in 2017 (Table 11.04).

The number of businesses that had no paid employees was about 108,300 in 2016 which was 3.4 percent increase from one year earlier and a 20 percent increase from 10 years earlier. (Table 15.25).

In 2016, 12.4 percent of households in Hawaii did not have internet access. This was lower than the U.S. average of 15.2 percent of households. (Table 16.09).

In 2016, 11.1 percent of primary energy consumption in Hawaii came from renewable energy. Of the renewable energy consumed, 39.7 percent came from biomass, 31.1 percent came from solar, 18.8 percent came from wind, 7.7 percent came from geothermal, and 2.7 percent came from hydro. (Table 17.05).

In 2016, 60.7 percent of the state’s hydro power was produced on the island of Hawaii. Kauai produced 45.1 percent of the state’s solar power, and 42.3 percent of the state’s wind power was produced on Maui. (Table 17.07).

According to the Hawaii Automobile Dealers Association, in 2017, 59,137 new retail vehicles were registered, which represented the highest number of new vehicles registrations since 2006. (Table 18.14).

In 2017, vacancy rates for commercial real estate on Oahu varied depending on the type of property with a 12.8 percent for offices, 5.9 percent for retail and 2 percent for industrial. (Table 21.25).

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2016, the State of Hawaii had 954 manufacturing establishments that employed 14,122 workers and paid out about $629 million in wages. (Table 22.05).

The daily hotel room rate again increased in 2017 to $264.43 per night, a $10.40 increase from 2016. Average daily room rates were most expensive in Wailea, Maui, where rates were $538.22. (Tables 23.38 and 23.39).

DBEDT’s Research and Economic Analysis Division (READ) also maintains the historical series of tables and updates the data continuously throughout the year. The historical series and the update can also be found on the DBEDT website here.