High costs make Hawaiʻi’s poverty rate higher than U.S. average

The U.S. Census Bureau published the new supplemental poverty rate Tuesday. The national rate was 13.1 percent. Hawaiʻi is among 16 states where the supplemental poverty rate is higher than the national average.

Nicole Woo, an advocate at the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice, said the supplemental poverty rate shows that Hawaiʻi is doing far worse than the official poverty rate would suggest—13th worst in the nation instead of 8th best.

“Hawaiʻi has the fourth largest gap between the supplemental poverty rate and official poverty rate, which shows how the cost of living really skews the official poverty rate,” she said. “The official poverty rate is just not a very accurate measure, unfortunately.”

Woo noted that the new census data also showed food stamps reduced poverty in Hawaiʻi by 1.3 percent, the sixth largest effect in any state. For seniors, the impact of food stamps was even bigger—the third largest reduction in poverty in the nation.