Hawaii incomes, housing prices up while population shrinks, grows older
by Jonathan Helton, Grassroot Institute
The latest edition of the State of Hawaii Data Book, released last month by the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, underscores the state’s ongoing challenges with rising living expenses and population loss.
First produced in 1962, the data book features statistics from private sector and federal, state and local government sources that paint a picture of how Hawaii is changing.
Although there are some bright spots, such as the state’s real per capita income growing more than the national average, a main takeaway is that many concerning trends have not reversed.
For instance, the state’s population shrunk by 0.15% between July 1, 2024, and July 1, 2025. That might not sound like much, but as the figure below shows, Hawaii’s population has been on a downward trajectory since 2015.
At the same time, Hawaii’s population is also growing older. The statewide median age is 42.1 years, up from 40.6 years in 2020 and 38.6 in 2010.
The chart below shows how the portion of Hawaii’s population aged 50 and older has expanded since 2010.
Hawaii also continues to become a more expensive place to live.
The statewide median single-family home sales price topped $1 million for the first time in 2025. Only in Hawaiʻi County was the median selling price less than that, at $550,000.
For condo units, the median sale price cooled a bit from an all-time high of $560,000 in 2024, dropping to $539,000 in 2025. In fact, every county except Kauaʻi saw its median condo sale prices decrease year-over-year.
In contrast, the Honolulu Construction Cost index — a measure of expenses for construction projects — increased by 25.47% for single-family homes and 23.77% for high-rise buildings between 2020 and 2025, meaning those housing types got much more expensive to build during that time.
The data book wasn’t all bad news, however. Hawaii’s per capita real income growth outpaced the national average between 2018 and 2024, increasing by 14.54% compared to the nation’s 13.31%.
Despite this, living in Hawaii remains expensive, especially for working class families and business owners.
Grassroot Institute president Keli’i Akina wrote recently that “Hawaii lawmakers continue to make life hard for those who supply the many goods and services we need to live and prosper, namely through high taxes, excessive regulations and too many burdensome permitting and licensing requirements.”
Perhaps this new data will encourage state and county policymakers to pare back some of those taxes and regulations in 2027.