Census data ranks Hawaiʻi 9th highest for poverty

One in six Hawaiʻi residents lives in poverty. That’s according to new figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, which includes the cost of living as part of the calculation. The traditional measure of poverty is based only on income.

When you figure in the cost of living, Hawaiʻi’s poverty rate skyrockets from 11 percent of the population to nearly 17 percent. Nicole Woo is the senior policy analyst with the Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. She says the latest figure is a reminder that Hawaiʻi’s relatively low unemployment rate only tells part of the state’s true economic story.

Under the traditional measure, about 149,000 Hawaiʻi residents are living in poverty. But figuring in the cost of living here, that figure rises to 229,000.