New Resources

Data Center offers new statistics on trends in Hawai‘i

The State Data Center, part of the Department of Business Economic Development and Tourism, has released a number of new statistical summary reports, accessible on the DBEDT web site, providing facts on trends in hundreds of areas affecting delivery of services, community planning, identification of needs, program effectiveness indicators and more.  

  • The “County Social, Business, and Economic Trends in Hawaii:  1990-2006” report, contains 71 updated tables with statistics on Hawai‘i social, business and economic trends for the state and each county.
  • The Data Book Time Series tables are compiled from DBEDT Data Books published between 1962 and 2007 and include tables that have at least five years of continuous data.
  • The Monthly Economic Indicators contain data on visitor arrivals, general fund tax revenue, building permits and wage and salary jobs for the state and county. November 2007 data is now available along with historical data dating back to January 1990.

Dr. Eugene Tian of DBEDT has analyzed the “County Social, Business, and Economic Trends in Hawaii:  1990-2006" report and the following are among his observations:

  • There was an increase of 85,550 wage and salary jobs statewide during the 16-year period.  Honolulu County gained 41,900 jobs, followed by Maui County with 20,600, Hawaii County with 18,000 jobs and Kauai County with 4,850 jobs gained.
  • The statewide average wage of private employees increased at an annual rate of 3.0%.  In 2006, the average wage of private employees statewide was $35,901.  The average wage in Honolulu County was higher than the state level at $37,241 but grew at the state rate. Though still lower than the state level, average wage rate in Hawaii County had the highest growth at 3.4% a year.  Maui and Kauai counties had the same annual growth rate at 3.3% per year.
  • All counties experienced decline in agricultural and manufacturing jobs from 1990 to 2006. Due to the booming in construction, statewide construction jobs reached 35,850 in 2006, the second highest in history – 1991 was the highest with 36,100 jobs. The biggest increase in job count was in the professional and business services sector.
  • On a typical day in 2006, there were 187,609 visitors in the state.  In another word, for every 15 persons in the state, two of them were visitors.
  • According to the surveys conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, Hawaii State had 32,244 business establishments with payrolls in 2005, an increase of 2,931 establishments from 1990.
  • Statewide electricity demand increased at an annual rate of 1.5%.  Maui County had the largest increase in electricity use at 3.1% per year, followed by Hawaii County at 3.0%.  Demand on Kauai County grew at 1.7% per year.  Honolulu County had the lowest growth at 1.1% per year.
  • Of the registered voters in the state, about 52.7% of them actually went to vote in 2006 general election.  That was lower than the 78% in 1990.  The voting rates across the counties are similar at about 63% in 2006 except Maui.  Maui’s voting rate was at 48.3% in 2006, down from 80% in 1990.
  • In 2006, there were a total of 1.1 million vehicles registered in the state.  From 1990 to 2006, the average increase in registered vehicles was 14,898 per year.
  • There were an average of 69,803 crime cases a year statewide during the 1990-2005 periods.  Honolulu accounted for 75.1% of the cases at 52,456 per year, followed by Maui at 7,817, Hawaii County at 6,970 and Kauai County at 2,559.