Census: Islanders marry later, live longer
Hawaii households are among the largest in the nation, more commonly include married couples, and have the second highest percentage of people 65 years of age or older, according to new statistics released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. The data are part of the bureau’s American Community Survey, which assembles updates every year instead of every ten years. According to the survey, Hawaii has the third-largest average household size (2.88 people), behind Utah (3.07) and California (2.6), likely attributed to the high number of multi-generational households prompted by cultural or financial reasons. “Married-Couple Families” account for 53 percent of Hawaii households, the fourth highest in the nation. But islanders tend to wait longer to get hitched — the median age of first marriage for women in Hawaii is 27 and 28.6 for men, ranking the state sixth and seventh nationally. Marriage-minded men in Hawaii, however, have it tougher than women: Hawaii ranks fourth in both the ratio of unmarried men to unmarried women and in the percent of men who have never been married.
Hawaii is second only to Florida when it comes to households with at least one person over 65 years of age, and is tied for second with Florida in the total number of people who are 85 years of age or older, behind only North Dakota. Hawaii ranked seventh in the percentage of the total population that is age 65 or older.
As to the racial make up of Hawaii’s population, Hawaii ranked first in several categories: percent of the total population who are Asian alone (42 percent, far ahead of second-ranked California’s 12.4 percent and several times the national average of 4.3 percent); percent of the total popuatlion who are “Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander” alone (7.4 percent, versus second-ranked Utah’s 0.6 percent and the national average of 0.1 percent); and the percent of the total population who are of two or more races (21 percent versus second-ranked Alaska’s 6.9 percent and the national average of 1.9 percent). Yet when it comes to people who identify as white alone, Hawaii ranked last, with 24.9 percent (versus the national average of 74.7 percent). The survey figures largely affirm recently released estimates of Hawaii’s racial mix.
When it comes to Hawaii residents born outside the United States, Hawaii ranks sixth with 17.2 percent (versus the national avarage of 12.4 percent). Among them, people born in Asia dominate, accounting for over 82 percent of foreign-born residents, ranking the islands first and far ahead of second-ranked Alaska (47.6 percent). By contrast, Hawaii ranked last in foreign-born residents hailing from Latin America, second-to-last for those from Europe (ahead of only Texas), and 47th for those from Mexico. Hawaii ranked ninth in the percent of people who speak a language other than English at home.
