It’s All About Hawai‘i: New Data Book Available Online

Big Island Now stock photo. June 2016

The Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism released the “2015 State of Hawaii Data Book” today.

The resource is available on the DBEDT website and may be downloaded in its entirety or in-part as either PDF or Excel files.

The state’s data book is the most comprehensive statistical book about Hawai‘i in a single compilation.

With more than 800 data tables, it covers a broad range of statistical information in areas such as population, education, labor, energy, business enterprises, government, tourism and transportation.

“The state’s data book provides comprehensive information from all sources, both public and private,” said DBEDT Director Luis P. Salaveria. “It’s the most popular product on the DBEDT website and has been consistently produced for 47 years.”

“We try to add more data series to the data book to accommodate a wide range of data needs,” said Chief State Economist Dr. Eugene Tian. “Among the new data series in this data nook are the Hawai‘i homes purchased by origin of buyers.”

DBEDT’s Research and Economic Analysis Division also maintains the historical series of tables and updates the data continuously throughout the year.

Some of the interesting data in this newest edition includes the following:

• About 60% of the 58,144 domestic in-migrants to Hawai‘i in 2014 were between the ages of 20 to 44 years old. (Table 1.65)

• A majority of marriages (55%) were interracial in 2014 in situations where at least one partner was a Hawai‘i resident. (Table 2.44)

• The tuition per semester for a full-time resident undergraduate student at University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa in 2015 was $5,172, or 5% higher compared to previous year. (Table 3.25)

• Hawai‘i State Library system circulated 475,652 copies of electronic media, up 33.6% compared to previous year and an increase of 644% compared to five years ago. (Table 3.28)

• In 2015, there were 4,068 people in state adult and juvenile correctional facilities, which was a 4% increase from the year before. (Table 4.20)

• There are 15 dams throughout the state that have a maximum storage of 600 acre-feet or more; 13 out of 15 of those dams are on either O‘ahu or Kaua‘i. (Table 5.23)

• In 2015, atmospheric carbon dioxide measurements at Mauna Loa exceeded 400 parts per million for the first time since measurements have been taken starting in 1958. (Table 5.44)

• US Department of Defense procurement prime contracts… ranged from $1.7 billion to $2.8 billion over FY 2011 to FY 2015. Over this period the value of prime contracts awarded to small business ranged from 38.1% to 50.2% of the total. An average 75 percent of the small business contracts went to minority businesses over the period. (Table 10.25)

• As of Sept. 30, 2015, there were 17,600 military retirees in Hawai‘i, of which almost half (46.3%) were over 65 years old. Of the military retirees, 37.8% retired from the Army; 28.1% Navy; 6.3% Marines, and 27.8% Air Force. (Table 10.35)

• In 2015, there were 1,047 licensed child care centers in the state—double the number of centers in 2004 when there were 523. (Table 11.22)

• The occupation with greatest employment in Hawai‘i in 2015 was “retail salesperson” with 24,770 employment and $11.46 average hourly salary. The next highest occupation was “waiters and waitresses,” with 15,299 employment, followed by cashiers (14,790 employment) and general office clerks (13,660 employment). (Table 12.36)

• According to the Regional Price Parities from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis the “All Items” price level in Hawai‘i was 16.8% higher than the overall national price level in 2014. “Goods” component was 8.9% higher while “Services: rents” component was 58.4% higher than the national average in the year. (Table 14.02)

• The three banks in Hawai‘i with assets of more than $1 billion in 2015 employed more than 5,000 full-time equivalent employees. (Table 15.05)

• There were 3,324 fires in 2015, resulting in five deaths and losses of more than $23 million. (Table 15.14)

• In Hawai‘i, 85.6% of the population had access to a computer with an Internet subscription in 2015. Comparing by age group, persons under 18 years of age had the highest percentage at 90.2%, whereas persons 18 to 64 had 87.4% and persons 65 years and older had 72.3%. (Table 16.12)

• The average electricity price for residential customers was 30 cents per kWh in 2015, 7 cents per kWh, a 19% decrease from the previous year. (Table 17.09)

• A majority of the more than 19,000 home purchases in 2015 were by local buyers (78%) with an average sales price of $546,146; followed by Mainland buyers (19%) with an average sales price of $751,210; and lastly foreign buyers (3%) with an average sales price of $783,774. (Table 21.38)

• Duty free store revenue in 2015 was $135.6 million, which was a decrease of 18.5% compared to 2014. (Table 23.12)

• Another record year in the State of Hawai‘i for hotel occupancy and room rates in 2015 as the average hotel occupancy reached 78.8%, 1.8 percentage point increase, and the average daily room rate reached $243.93, $9.08 or 3.9 percent increase compared to the previous year. (Table 23.39)

• Foreign agricultural exports, on a farm receipts-basis, have grown from $151.5 million in 2000 to $400.4 million in 2014. Of that total about 90% on average has been of plants products, such as fresh and processed fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, coffee and horticulture products. (Table 24.11)