What new census data says—and doesn’t say—about Hawaiʻi

Hawaiʻi’s poverty rate stayed about the same—9.5 percent—but the percentage of impoverished families grew to 7.4 percent from 6 percent.

That’s not very high compared to other states. But Nicole Woo, senior policy analyst at the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice, says that the official poverty rate underestimates the actual number of people in poverty.

There’s another data point called the Supplemental Poverty Measure that takes into account the cost of living, taxes and government benefits.

Between 2015 and 2017, Hawaiʻi’s supplemental poverty rate was 15 percent, the 10th-worst rate in the nation.

Woo says this is the third-largest jump in the nation and pushes the number of impoverished people in poverty in Hawaiʻi above 200,000.

She maintains it’s a more accurate measure. “It’s just something that can’t be repeated enough times,” she says.