Hawaii

The State of Hawaii derives its name from the name of its largest island, {{lang|haw|Hawai{{okina}}i|italic=no}}. A common explanation of the name of {{lang|haw|Hawai{{okina}}i|italic=no}} is that it was named for {{lang|haw|Hawai{{okina}}iloa|italic=no}}, a figure from Hawaiian oral tradition. He is said to have discovered the islands when they were first settled.{{cite journal |last=Cartwright |first=Bruce |title=The Legend of Hawaii-loa |url=http://www.ethnomath.org/resources/cartwright1929.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=Journal of the Polynesian Society |volume=38 |pages=105–121 |year=1929 |via=Ethnomathematics Digital Library (EDL) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070713091306/http://www.ethnomath.org/resources/cartwright1929.pdf |archive-date=July 13, 2007}}{{cite web |url=http://www.hawaiischoolreports.com/symbols/origins.htm |title=Origins of Hawaii's Names |access-date=February 24, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061230195509/http://www.hawaiischoolreports.com/symbols/origins.htm |archive-date=December 30, 2006}}

The Hawaiian language word {{lang|haw|Hawai{{okina}}i}} is very similar to Proto-Polynesian Sawaiki, with the reconstructed meaning "homeland."{{efn|1=Pollex—a reconstruction of the Proto-Polynesian lexicon, Biggs and Clark, 1994.{{cite book |last=Biggs |first=Bruce |editor-last=Sutton |editor-first=Douglas G. |chapter=Does Māori have a closest relative? |title=The Origins of the First New Zealanders |publisher=Auckland University Press |location=Auckland, NZ |date=1994 |pages=96–105 |isbn=978-1-86940-098-9}}{{break}}{{cite book |last=Clark |first=Ross |editor-last=Sutton |editor-first=Douglas G. |chapter=Moriori and Māori: The Linguistic Evidence |title=The Origins of the First New Zealanders |publisher=Auckland University Press |location=Auckland, NZ |date=1994 |pages=123–135 |isbn=978-1-86940-098-9}} The asterisk preceding the word signifies that it is a reconstructed word form.}} Cognates of {{lang|haw|Hawai{{okina}}i}} are found in other Polynesian languages, including Māori ({{lang|mi|Hawaiki}}), Rarotongan ({{lang|rar|{{okina}}Avaiki}}) and Samoan ({{lang|sm|Savai{{okina}}i}}). According to linguists Pukui and Elbert,{{cite book |last1=Pukui |first1=M.K. |last2=Elbert |first2=S.H. |title=Hawaiian Dictionary |publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press |location=Honolulu, HI |year=1986 |page=62 |isbn=978-0-8248-0703-0}} "elsewhere in Polynesia, {{lang|haw|Hawai{{okina}}i}} or a cognate is the name of the underworld or of the ancestral home, but in Hawaii, the name has no meaning".{{cite book |last1=Pukui |first1=M.K. |last2=Elbert |first2=S.H. |last3=Mookini |first3=E.T. |title=Place Names of Hawaii |publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press |location=Honolulu, HI |year=1974 |isbn=978-0-8248-0208-0}}

In 1978, Hawaiian was added to the Constitution of the State of Hawaii as an official state language alongside English.{{cite web |title=Article XV, Section 4 |website=The Constitution of the State of Hawaii |publisher=Hawaii Legislative Reference Bureau |url=http://lrbhawaii.org/con/conart15.html |access-date=March 18, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171101203129/http://lrbhawaii.org/con/conart15.html |archive-date=November 1, 2017 |url-status=live}} The title of the state constitution is The Constitution of the State of Hawaii. Article{{spaces}}XV, Section{{spaces}}1 of the Constitution uses The State of Hawaii.{{cite web |title=Article XV, Section 1 |website=The Constitution of the State of Hawaii |publisher=Hawaii Legislative Reference Bureau |url=http://lrbhawaii.org/con/conart15.html |access-date=March 18, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171101203129/http://lrbhawaii.org/con/conart15.html |archive-date=November 1, 2017 |url-status=live }} Diacritics were not used because the document, drafted in 1949,{{cite web |title=The Constitution of the State of Hawaii |publisher=Hawaii Legislative Reference Bureau |url=http://lrbhawaii.org/con/conorg.html |access-date=March 18, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150309102450/http://lrbhawaii.org/con/conorg.html |archive-date=March 9, 2015 |url-status=live }} predates the use of the {{lang|haw|{{okina}}okina}} {{angbr|{{okina}}}} and the {{lang|haw|kahakō}} in modern Hawaiian orthography. The exact spelling of the state's name in the Hawaiian language is {{lang|haw|Hawai{{okina}}i}}.{{efn|The {{lang|haw|ʻokina}}, which resembles an apostrophe and precedes the final i in Hawai{{okina}}i, is a consonant in Hawaiian and phonetically represents the glottal stop {{IPAc-en|ʔ}}.}} In the Hawaii Admission Act that granted Hawaiian statehood, the federal government used Hawaii as the state name.

However, most official state government publications, departments, and office titles use Hawai{{okina}}i, including the Governor of Hawai{{okina}}i,{{cite web |title=Governor Josh Green, M.D. |url=https://governor.hawaii.gov/ |website=governor.hawaii.gov |access-date=8 December 2024 |language=en}} the Hawai{{okina}}i State Legislature,{{cite web |title=Hawai{{okina}}i State Legislature |url=https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/ |access-date=8 December 2024}} the Hawai{{okina}}i State Judiciary,{{cite web |title=Hawai{{okina}}i State Judiciary |url=https://www.courts.state.hi.us/|website=www.courts.state.hi.us |access-date=8 December 2024 |language=en}} the University of Hawai{{okina}}i,{{cite web |title=University of Hawai{{okina}}i System |url=https://www.hawaii.edu/ |website=www.hawaii.edu |access-date=8 December 2024}} the Hawaiʻi State Seal,{{cite web |title=History of the State Seal and Embosser |url=https://ltgov.hawaii.gov/virtual-tour-history-of-the-state-seal-and-embosser/ |website=ltgov.hawaii.gov |access-date=8 December 2024 |language=en}} the Flag of Hawaiʻi,{{cite web |title=History of the Hawaiʻi Flag |url=https://ltgov.hawaii.gov/virtual-tour-history-of-the-hawai%CA%BBi-flag/ |website=ltgov.hawaii.gov |access-date=8 December 2024 |language=en}} and the Hawai{{okina}}i Board on Geographic Names.{{cite web |title=Hawaiʻi Board on Geographic Names |url=https://planning.hawaii.gov/gis/hbgn/ |website=planning.hawaii.gov |access-date=8 December 2024 |language=en}} The Hawai{{okina}}i Tourism Authority's official policy is to "recognize the importance of using these markings to preserve the indigenous language and culture of Hawai{{okina}}i and use them in all forms of communications."{{cite web |title=Go Hawaii |url=https://www.gohawaii.com/ |website=Go Hawaii |access-date=8 December 2024 |language=en |date=20 January 2017}}

{{Anchor|Geography}}

{{Main|Hawaiian Islands}}

{{See also|List of islands of Hawaii}}

{{Main Hawaiian Islands}}

There are eight main Hawaiian islands. Seven are inhabited, but only six are open to tourists and locals. Ni{{okina}}ihau is privately managed by brothers Bruce and Keith Robinson; access is restricted to those who have their permission. This island is also home to native Hawaiians. Access to uninhabited Kahoʻolawe island is also restricted and anyone who enters without permission will be arrested. This island may also be dangerous since it was a military base during the world wars and could still have unexploded ordnance.

File:Bathymetry_image_of_the_Hawaiian_archipelago.png map of main Hawaiian Islands|alt=Map of the Hawaiian islands]]

The Hawaiian archipelago is {{convert|2000|mi|km|abbr=on}} southwest of the contiguous United States.{{cite web |url = https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-constitutes-united-states-what-are-official-definitions |title = What constitutes the United States, what are the official definitions? |date = December 31, 1984 |publisher = United States Geological Survey |access-date = July 3, 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171116081238/https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-constitutes-united-states-what-are-official-definitions |archive-date = November 16, 2017 |url-status = live }} Hawaii is the southernmost U.S. state and the second westernmost after Alaska. Like Alaska, Hawaii borders no other U.S. state. It is the only U.S. state not in North America, and the only one completely surrounded by water and entirely an archipelago.

In addition to the eight main islands, the state has many smaller islands and islets. Ka{{okina}}ula is a small island near Ni{{okina}}ihau. The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands is a group of nine small, older islands northwest of Kaua{{okina}}i that extends from Nihoa to Kure Atoll; these are remnants of once much larger volcanic mountains. Across the archipelago are around 130 small rocks and islets, such as Molokini, which are made up of either volcanic or marine sedimentary rock.{{cite web |last=Rubin |first=Ken |title=General Information about Hawaiian Shield Volcanoes |url=http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/HCV/haw_volc.html |url-status=live |access-date=December 1, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101229054039/http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/HCV/haw_volc.html |archive-date=December 29, 2010}}

Hawai{{okina}}i's tallest mountain Mauna Kea is {{convert|13796|ft|m|abbr=on}} above mean sea level;{{cite web |title=Mauna Kea Volcano, Hawaii |url=http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanoes/maunakea/ |publisher=Hvo.wr.usgs.gov |access-date=November 5, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061021204300/http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanoes/maunakea/ |archive-date=October 21, 2006 |url-status=live}} it is taller than Mount Everest if measured from the base of the mountain, which lies on the floor of the Pacific Ocean and rises about {{convert|33500|ft|m}}.{{cite web |last=Unke |first=Beata |title=Height of the Tallest Mountain on Earth |url=http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2001/BeataUnke.shtml |url-status=live |website=The Physics Factbook |year=2001 |access-date=August 3, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070819084653/http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2001/BeataUnke.shtml |archive-date=August 19, 2007}}

{{see also|Hawaii hotspot}}

File:Pāhoehoe lava meets Pacific.jpg

The Hawaiian islands were formed by volcanic activity initiated at an undersea magma source called the Hawai{{okina}}i hotspot. The process is continuing to build islands; the tectonic plate beneath much of the Pacific Ocean continually moves northwest and the hotspot remains stationary, slowly creating new volcanoes. Because of the hotspot's location, all active land volcanoes are on the southern half of Hawai{{okina}}i Island. The newest volcano, Kamaʻehuakanaloa (formerly Lō{{okina}}ihi), is south of the coast of Hawai{{okina}}i Island.

The last volcanic eruption outside Hawai{{okina}}i Island occurred at {{lang|haw|Haleakalā|italic=no}} on Maui before the late 18th{{spaces}}century, possibly hundreds of years earlier.{{cite web |title=Youngest lava flows on East Maui probably older than A.D. 1790 |url=http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanowatch/1999/99_09_09.html |url-status=live |publisher=United States Geological Survey |date=September 9, 1999 |access-date=May 5, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010222184841/http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanowatch/1999/99_09_09.html |archive-date=February 22, 2001}} In 1790, Kīlauea exploded; it is the deadliest eruption known to have occurred in the modern era in what is now the United States.{{cite web |url=http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs074-97/ |title=Living on Active Volcanoes—The Island of Hawaii, U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 074-97 |publisher=U.S. Geological Survey |access-date=November 5, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111025021343/http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs074-97/ |archive-date=October 25, 2011 |url-status=live}} Up to 5,405 warriors and their families marching on Kīlauea were killed by the eruption.{{cite journal |last1=Swanson |first1=D.A. |last2=Rausch |first2=J. |title=Human Footprints in Relation to the 1790 Eruption of Kīlauea |journal=American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting |volume=11 |pages=V11B–2022 |year=2008 |bibcode=2008AGUFM.V11B2022S}} Volcanic activity and subsequent erosion have created impressive geological features. Hawaii Island has the second-highest point among the world's islands.{{cite web |title=Largest islands of the world |url=http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/infopage/islands.htm |url-status=live |publisher=Worldatlas.com |access-date=April 16, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110321164954/http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/infopage/islands.htm |archive-date=March 21, 2011}}

On the volcanoes' flanks, slope instability has generated damaging earthquakes and related tsunamis, particularly in 1868 and 1975.{{cite web|url=http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/hawaii.php|title=Tsunami Safety & Preparedness in Hawaii|last=Pacific Tsunami Warning Center|date=November 12, 2009|access-date=November 12, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110307231047/http://www.weather.gov/ptwc/hawaii.php |archive-date=March 7, 2011}} Catastrophic debris avalanches on the ocean island volcanoes' submerged flanks have created steep cliffs.{{cite book |last=Le Bas |first=T.P. |chapter=Slope Failures on the Flanks of Southern Cape Verde Islands |editor-last=Lykousis |editor-first=Vasilios |title=Submarine mass movements and their consequences: 3rd international symposium |publisher=Springer Science+Business Media |date=2007 |isbn=978-1-4020-6511-8}}{{cite journal |last=Mitchell |first=N. |title=Susceptibility of mid-ocean ridge volcanic islands and seamounts to large scale landsliding |journal=Journal of Geophysical Research |volume=108 |issue=B8 |pages=1–23 |year=2003 |s2cid=131282494 |bibcode=2003JGRB..108.2397M |doi=10.1029/2002jb001997 |doi-access=free | issn = 0148-0227 }}

{{lang|haw|Kīlauea|italic=no}} erupted in May 2018, opening 22 fissure vents on its eastern rift zone. The Leilani Estates and Lanipuna Gardens are within this territory. The eruption destroyed at least 36 buildings and this, coupled with the lava flows and the sulfur dioxide fumes, necessitated the evacuation of more than 2,000 inhabitants from their neighborhoods.{{cite web|url=https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/g20264868/hawaii-volcano-eruption-2018-photos/|title=Man Whose Leg Was Shattered By Hawaii's Volcano Eruption Speaks Out|date=May 24, 2018|access-date=May 31, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180601073344/https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/g20264868/hawaii-volcano-eruption-2018-photos/|archive-date=June 1, 2018|url-status=live}}

{{see also|Endemism in the Hawaiian Islands|List of invasive plant species in Hawaii}}

File:Hawaiian monk seal at French Frigate Shoals 07.jpg seen at French Frigate Shoals, located in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, protected as part of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.]]

The islands of Hawai{{okina}}i are distant from other land habitats, and life is thought to have arrived there by wind, waves (i.e., by ocean currents), and wings (i.e., birds, insects, and any seeds that they may have carried on their feathers). Hawai{{okina}}i has more endangered species and has lost a higher percentage of its endemic species than any other U.S. state.{{cite web| url=http://nationalzoo.si.edu/publications/zoogoer/1995/1/hawaiisforestbirds.cfm| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070318100849/http://nationalzoo.si.edu/publications/zoogoer/1995/1/hawaiisforestbirds.cfm| archive-date=March 18, 2007| title=Hawaii's Forest Birds Sing the Blues| author=Howard Youth | access-date=October 31, 2008}} The endemic plant Brighamia now requires hand pollination because its natural pollinator is presumed to be extinct.{{cite web| url=http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/hawnprop/plants/bri-insi.htm| title=Hawaiian Native Plant Propagation Database| access-date=December 15, 2013| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141128012940/http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/hawnprop/plants/bri-insi.htm| archive-date=November 28, 2014| url-status=live}} The two species of Brighamia—B. rockii and B. insignis—are represented in the wild by around 120 individual plants. To ensure that these plants set seed, biologists rappel down {{Convert|3000|foot|m|adj=on}} cliffs to brush pollen onto their stigmas.{{cite book| url={{google books |plainurl=y|id=YWTZs5fSqb8C|page=133}} |title=The Forgotten Pollinators|author1=Stephen Buchmann |author2=Gary Paul Nabhan | access-date=December 17, 2013| isbn=9781597269087| date=June 22, 2012|publisher=Island Press }}

The archipelago's extant main islands have been above the surface of the ocean for less than 10{{spaces}}million years, a fraction of the time biological colonization and evolution have occurred there. The islands are well known for the environmental diversity that occurs on high mountains within a trade winds field. Native Hawaiians developed complex horticultural practices to utilize the surrounding ecosystem for agriculture. Cultural practices developed to enshrine values of environmental stewardship and reciprocity with the natural world, resulting in widespread biodiversity and intricate social and environmental relationships that persist to this day.{{Cite book |last=LaDuke |first=Winona |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/41572567 |title=All our relations : native struggles for land and life |date=1999 |publisher=South End Press |isbn=0-89608-600-3 |location=Cambridge, MA |oclc=41572567}} On a single island, the climate around the coasts can range from dry tropical (less than {{convert|20|in|mm|disp=or|sp=us}} annual rainfall) to wet tropical; on the slopes, environments range from tropical rainforest (more than {{convert|200|in|mm|disp=or|sp=us}} per year), through a temperate climate, to alpine conditions with a cold, dry climate. The rainy climate impacts soil development, which largely determines ground permeability, affecting the distribution of streams and wetlands.{{cite journal |last1=Fletcher |first1=Charles H. |last2=Murray-Wallace |first2=Colin V. |last3=Glenn |first3=Craig R. |last4=Sherman |first4=Clark E. |last5=Popp |first5=Brian |last6=Hessler |first6=Angela |title=Age and Origin of Late Quaternary Eolianite, Kaiehu Point (Moomomi), Molokai, Hawaii |journal=Journal of Coastal Research |date=2005 |pages=97–112 |jstor=25736978 }}{{cite book |doi=10.1016/B978-1-4831-9842-2.50022-5 |chapter=Halloysite and Gibbsite Formation in Hawaii |title=Clays and Clay Minerals |year=1962 |last1=Bates |first1=Thomas F. |pages=315–328 |isbn=978-1-4831-9842-2 }}{{Cite journal |url=http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/70160871 |title=Geology and ground-water resources of the island of Kauai, Hawaii |journal=Hawaii Division of Hydrography Bulletin |volume = 13|first1=Gordon A. |last1=Macdonald |first2=Dan A. |last2=Davis |first3=Doak C. |last3=Cox |date=May 27, 1960 |page=3 |bibcode=1960usgs.rept....3M |via=pubs.er.usgs.gov}}

File:Na Pali Coast, Kauai, Hawaii.jpg, Kauaʻi]]

Several areas in Hawai{{okina}}i are under the National Park Service's protection.{{cite web | title = Hawaii | publisher = National Park Service | access-date = July 15, 2008 | url = http://www.nps.gov/state/HI | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080703061043/http://www.nps.gov/state/hi/ | archive-date = July 3, 2008 | url-status = live }} Hawaii has two national parks: Haleakalā National Park, near Kula on Maui, which features the dormant volcano Haleakalā that formed east Maui; and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, in the southeast region of Hawai{{okina}}i Island, which includes the active volcano Kīlauea and its rift zones.

There are three national historical parks: Kalaupapa National Historical Park in Kalaupapa, Moloka{{okina}}i, the site of a former leper colony; Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park in Kailua-Kona on Hawai{{okina}}i Island; and Pu{{okina}}uhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park, an ancient place of refuge on Hawai{{okina}}i Island's west coast. Other areas under the National Park Service's control include Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail on Hawai{{okina}}i Island and the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor on O{{okina}}ahu.

President George W. Bush proclaimed the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument on June 15, 2006. The monument covers roughly {{convert|140000|mi2|km2}} of reefs, atolls, and shallow and deep sea out to {{convert|50|mi|km|-1}} offshore in the Pacific Ocean—an area larger than all the national parks in the U.S. combined.{{cite web|url=http://www.pewtrusts.org/ideas/ideas_item.cfm?content_item_id=3417&content_type_id=15&issue_name=Protecting%20ocean%20life&issue=16&page=15&name=Op-eds%20%28Pew%29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060930183659/http://www.pewtrusts.org/ideas/ideas_item.cfm?content_item_id=3417&content_type_id=15&issue_name=Protecting%20ocean%20life&issue=16&page=15&name=Op-eds%20%28Pew%29 |archive-date=September 30, 2006 |title=Treasure Islands |author=Joshua Reichert and Theodore Roosevelt IV |date=June 15, 2006 |url-status=dead }}

{{see also|List of Hawaii tornadoes|List of Hawaii hurricanes|Climate of Hawaii}}

File:ISS067-E-149917 Hawaii.jpg conditions and a gentle breeze at 1:43 PM HDT;{{Cite web |url=https://www.wunderground.com/history/daily/us/hi/honolulu/PHNL/date/2022-6-24 |title=Honolulu, HI Weather History: June 24, 2022 |work=wunderground.com}} north is oriented towards the lower right in this photo taken from the International Space Station on {{nowrap|June 24, 2022}}]]

Hawai{{okina}}i has a tropical climate. Temperatures and humidity tend to be less extreme because of near-constant trade winds from the east. Summer highs reach around {{convert|88|F|C}} during the day, with lows of {{Convert|75|F|C}} at night. Winter day temperatures are usually around {{convert|83|F|C}}; at low elevation they seldom dip below {{convert|65|F|C}} at night. Snow, not usually associated with the tropics, falls at {{convert|4200|m|ft|order=flip}} on Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa on Hawaii Island in some winter months. Snow rarely falls on Haleakalā. Mount Wai{{okina}}ale{{okina}}ale on Kaua{{okina}}i has the second-highest average annual rainfall on Earth, about {{convert|460|in|mm}} per year. Most of Hawaii experiences only two seasons; the dry season runs from May to October and the wet season is from October to April.{{cite web |url=http://www.prh.noaa.gov/hnl/pages/climate_summary.php |title=Climate of Hawaii |publisher=Prh.noaa.gov |access-date=November 5, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111101041503/http://www.prh.noaa.gov/hnl/pages/climate_summary.php |archive-date=November 1, 2011 |url-status=live}}

Overall with climate change, Hawai{{okina}}i is getting drier and hotter.{{cite web|url=https://climate.hawaii.gov/hi-facts/rain/#:~:text=By%20the%20end%20of%20the,species%20found%20only%20in%20Hawaiʻi.|title=Less & Heavy Rain|publisher=State of Hawaii|access-date=June 11, 2023}}{{cite web|url=https://climate.hawaii.gov/hi-facts/temperature/|title=Rising temperatures|publisher=State of Hawaii|access-date=June 11, 2023}} The warmest temperature recorded in the state, in Pahala on April 27, 1931, is {{convert|100|°F}}, tied with Alaska as the lowest record high temperature observed in a U.S. state.{{cite web|url=https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/extremes/scec/records|title=State Climate Extremes Committee (SCEC)|publisher=US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Centers for Environmental Information.|access-date=February 2, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180221174428/https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/extremes/scec/records|archive-date=February 21, 2018|url-status=live}} Hawai{{okina}}i's record low temperature is {{convert|12|°F}} observed in May{{spaces}}1979, on the summit of Mauna Kea. Hawai{{okina}}i is the only state to have never recorded subzero Fahrenheit temperatures.

Climates vary considerably on each island; they can be divided into windward and leeward (ko{{okina}}olau and kona, respectively) areas based upon location relative to the higher mountains. Windward sides face cloud cover.{{cite web |url=https://wrcc.dri.edu/Climate/narrative_hi.php |title=Climate of Hawaii |publisher=Western Regional Climate Center |access-date=26 June 2022}}

Hawaii has a decades-long history of hosting more military space for the United States than any other territory or state.{{cite journal |last=Takumi |first=Roy |date=1994 |title=Challenging U.S. Militarism in Hawai{{okina}}i and Okinawa |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41555279 |journal=Race, Poverty & the Environment |volume=4/5 |issue=4/1 |pages=8–9 |jstor=41555279 |issn=1532-2874}} This record of military activity has taken a sharp toll on the environmental health of the Hawaiian archipelago, degrading its beaches and soil, and making some places entirely unsafe due to unexploded ordnance.{{Cite journal |last=Blackford |first=Mansel G. |date=2004-09-01 |title=Environmental Justice, Native Rights, Tourism, and Opposition to Military Control: The Case of Kaho'olawe |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/3660711 |journal=Journal of American History |volume=91 |issue=2 |pages=544–571 |doi=10.2307/3660711 |jstor=3660711 |issn=0021-8723}} According to scholar Winona LaDuke: "The vast militarization of Hawaii has profoundly damaged the land. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, there are more federal hazardous waste sites in Hawaii – 31 – than in any other U.S. state."{{Cite book |last=LaDuke |first=Winona |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/946165345 |title=All our relations : Native struggles for land and life |date=2017 |isbn=978-1-60846-661-0 |location=Chicago |oclc=946165345 |page=173}} Hawaii State Representative Roy Takumi writes in "Challenging U.S. Militarism in Hawai{{okina}}i and Okinawa" that these military bases and hazardous waste sites have meant "the confiscation of large tracts of land from native peoples" and quotes late Hawaiian activist George Helm as asking: "What is national defense when what is being destroyed is the very thing the military is entrusted to defend, the sacred land of Hawai{{okina}}i?" Contemporary Indigenous Hawaiians are still protesting the occupation of their homelands and environmental degradation due to increased militarization in the wake of 9/11.{{Cite journal |last=Kauanui |first=J. Kehaulani |date=2004 |title=Hawai{{okina}}i in and out of America |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20132459 |journal=Mississippi Review |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=145–150 |jstor=20132459 |issn=0047-7559}}

After the rise of sugarcane plantations in the mid 19th century, island ecology changed dramatically. Plantations require massive quantities of water, and European and American plantation owners transformed the land in order to access it, primarily by building tunnels to divert water from the mountains to the plantations, constructing reservoirs, and digging wells.{{cite journal |last=MacLennan |first=Carol |date=2004 |title=The Mark of Sugar. Hawai{{okina}}i's Eco-Industrial Heritage |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20761975 |journal=Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung |volume=29 |issue=3 (109) |pages=37–62 |jstor=20761975 |issn=0172-6404}} These changes have made lasting impacts on the land and continue to contribute to resource scarcity for Native Hawaiians today.{{cite web |last=Huard |first=Mallory |date=2019-11-12 |title=In Hawaiʻi, Plantation Tourism Tastes Like Pineapple |url=https://edgeeffects.net/dole-pineapple-plantation/ |access-date=2022-06-10 |website=Edge Effects |language=en-US}}

According to Stanford scientist and scholar Sibyl Diver, Indigenous Hawaiians engage in a reciprocal relationship with the land, "based on principles of mutual caretaking, reciprocity and sharing".{{cite journal |last1=Diver |first1=Sibyl |last2=Vaughan |first2=Mehana |last3=Baker-Médard |first3=Merrill |last4=Lukacs |first4=Heather |date=2019 |title=Recognizing "reciprocal relations" to restore community access to land and water |journal=International Journal of the Commons |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=400–429 |doi=10.18352/ijc.881 |jstor=26632726 |s2cid=150684636 |issn=1875-0281|doi-access=free |bibcode=2019IJCom..13..400D }} This relationship ensures the longevity, sustainability, and natural cycles of growth and decay, as well as cultivating a sense of respect for the land and humility towards one's place in an ecosystem.

The tourism industry's ongoing expansion and its pressure on local systems of ecology, cultural tradition and infrastructure is creating a conflict between economic and environmental health.{{cite journal |last=Marsh |first=John S. |title=Hawaiian Tourism: Costs, Benefits, Alternatives |date=1975 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/45030035 |journal=Alternatives |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=34–39 |jstor=45030035 |issn=0002-6638}} In 2020, the Center for Biological Diversity reported on the plastic pollution of Hawaii's Kamilo beach, citing "massive piles of plastic waste".{{cite web |title=EPA: Waters Around Two Hawaii Beaches Impaired by Plastic Pollution |url=https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/epa-waters-around-two-hawaii-beaches-impaired-plastic-pollution-2020-07-16/ |access-date=2022-06-10 |website=Center for Biological Diversity}} Invasive species are spreading, and chemical and pathogenic runoff is contaminating groundwater and coastal waters.{{cite journal |last1=Mortz |first1=David |last2=Ray |first2=Chittaranjan |last3=Jain |first3=Ravi K. |date=2005-01-01 |title=Major environmental problems facing the Hawaiian Islands: management, policy, and technology transfer options |url=https://www.inderscienceonline.com/doi/abs/10.1504/IJTTC.2005.005796 |journal=International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=79–104 |doi=10.1504/IJTTC.2005.005796 |issn=1470-6075}}

{{main|History of Hawaii}}

{{HI history}}

Hawai{{okina}}i is one of two U.S. states, along with Texas, that were internationally recognized sovereign nations before becoming U.S. states. The Kingdom of Hawai{{okina}}i was sovereign from 1810 until 1893, when resident American and European capitalists and landholders overthrew the monarchy. Hawai{{okina}}i was an independent republic from 1894 until August 12, 1898, when it officially became a U.S. territory. Hawai{{okina}}i was admitted as a U.S. state on August 21, 1959.{{cite web |url=http://www.netstate.com/states/government/hi_government.htm |title=Hawaii State Government |publisher=Netstate.com |access-date=November 5, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111019022737/http://netstate.com/states/government/hi_government.htm |archive-date=October 19, 2011 |url-status=live }}

{{Main|Ancient Hawaii}}

The date of the human discovery and habitation of the Hawaiian Islands is the subject of academic debate.{{cite book | first = Patrick Vinton | last = Kirch | author-link = Patrick Vinton Kirch | title = The Evolution of the Polynesian Chiefdoms | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 1989 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/evolutionofpolyn0000kirc/page/77 77–79] | isbn = 978-0-521-27316-9 | url = https://archive.org/details/evolutionofpolyn0000kirc/page/77 }} Early archaeological studies suggested that Polynesian explorers from the Marquesas Islands or Society Islands may have arrived as early as the 3rd century CE.Van, James (2010). Ancient Sites of Oahu: A Guide to Archaeological Places of Interest. Bishop Museum Pr. Page 5. {{ISBN|978-1581780956}}. Some archaeologists and historians think it was a later wave of immigrants from Tahiti around 1100 CE who introduced a new line of high chiefs, the kapu system, the practice of human sacrifice, and the building of heiau.{{Cite web|date=May 18, 2017|title=Hawaii History & Civilization Growth {{!}} Timelines, Facts, Info|url=https://www.tourmaui.com/hawaii-history-timelines/|access-date=May 19, 2021|website=Valley Isle Excursions}}{{Cite book |last=Buck |first=Peter H. |title=Vikings of the Sunrise |publisher=Frederick A. Stokes Company |year=1938 |location=New York |pages=257–259}} This later immigration is detailed in Hawaiian mythology (mo{{okina}}olelo) about Pa{{okina}}ao. Other authors say there is no archaeological or linguistic evidence of a later influx of Tahitian settlers and that Pa{{okina}}ao must be regarded as a myth. More recent archaeological studies further suggest that the first settlement of Hawaii was not until around 900–1200 CE.

The islands' history is marked by a slow, steady growth in population and the size of the chiefdoms, which grew to encompass whole islands. Local chiefs, called ali{{okina}}i, ruled their settlements, and launched wars to extend their influence and defend their communities from predatory rivals. Ancient Hawai{{okina}}i was a caste-based society, much like that of Hindus in India.{{cite book | first = Barbara A. | last = West | year = 2009 | url = {{google books |plainurl=y|id=pCiNqFj3MQsC|page=270}} | title = Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania | publisher = Infobase Publishing | page = 270 | isbn = 978-1438119137}} Population growth was facilitated by ecological and agricultural practices that combined upland agriculture (manuka), ocean fishing (makai), fishponds and gardening systems. These systems were upheld by spiritual and religious beliefs, like the lokahi, that linked cultural continuity with the health of the natural world. According to Hawaiian scholar Mililani Trask, the lokahi symbolizes the "greatest of the traditions, values, and practices of our people ... There are three points in the triangle—the Creator, Akua; the peoples of the earth, Kanaka Maoli; and the land, the {{okina}}aina. These three things all have a reciprocal relationship."{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/34984146 |title=People of the seventh fire |date=1996 |publisher=Akwe:kon Press |others=Dagmar Seely |isbn=1-881178-02-1 |location=Ithaca, NY |oclc=34984146}}

{{#section:History of Hawaii|Pre1778}}

File:Tereoboo, King of Owyhee, bringing presents to Captain Cook by John Webber.jpg, King of Owyhee, bringing presents to Captain Cook by John Webber (drawn in 1779, published in 1784)|alt=Drawing of single-masted sailboat with one spinnaker-shaped sail, carrying dozens of men, accompanied by at least four other canoes]]

In January 1778, British Captain James Cook encountered the Hawaiian Islands serendipitously while crossing the Pacific during his third voyage of exploration. This marked the first documented contact by a European explorer with Hawai{{okina}}i.{{Cite book |last=Hough |first=Richard |title=Captain James Cook: a biography |date=1997 |publisher=Norton |isbn=978-0-393-31519-6 |location=New York |pages=311–315}} Cook named the archipelago "the Sandwich Islands" in honor of his sponsor John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich. Cook returned to the Hawaiian Islands in 1779 to resupply and over-winter, anchoring in Kealakakua off Hawaii Island for one month. Relations with the local people were peaceful then deteriorated and Cook was among those killed when violence broke out between the British and local Hawaiians.

After Cook, Hawaii was not visited by any foreign ships for seven years but, after 1786, visits became increasingly frequent. At the end of the eighteenth century, the maritime fur trade developed between the northwest coast of North America and Asia bringing the ships of many nations to the North Pacific Ocean. The Hawaiian islands became established as a convenient source of supplies and destination for overwintering not only for fur traders but also ships engaged in general cross-Pacific commerce.{{Cite book |last=Kuykendall |first=Ralph S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nkXREAAAQBAJ&q=the+hawaiian+kingdom |title=The Hawaiian Kingdom 1778-1854 Vol 1 Foundation and Transformation |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |year=1938 |location=Honolulu|isbn=978-0-8248-4322-9 }}{{rp|p=20–21}}

Historian Ralph Kuykendall has described the impact of these foreign visitors on the hitherto isolated Hawaiian Islands as an “invasion” which “little by little overwhelmed the old culture of the islands”.{{rp|p=12}} Over the decades following the first contact, the foreign resident population slowly grew; foreigners imported iron tools, manufactured items, and household utensils; they also introduced firearms, alcohol, tobacco, non-native plants, and - inadvertently - insects previously unknown to the islands such as mosquitos and scorpions.{{rp|p=26–28}}Native Hawaiians were vulnerable to Eurasian diseases for which they had less resistance.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} Forty years after Cook's arrival, it is estimated that the native population had declined by half and continued to decline throughout the 19th century. During the 1850s, measles killed a fifth of Hawai{{okina}}i's people.{{cite web |url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=422 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070207121510/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=422 |archive-date=February 7, 2007|title=Migration and Disease | website=Digital History}}

{{Main|Kingdom of Hawaii}}

File:Kamehameha Statue and flag.jpg

During the 1780s and early 1790s, the Hawaiian Islands were divided among several warring chiefdoms. In 1795, the fighting ended when Kamehameha, then a chief (ali’i) of Hawaii Island, conquered most of the main islands in the archipelago (including Maui and Oahu) then founded the Hawaiian Kingdom and the House of Kamehameha dynasty. Kauai (with nearby Niihau) remained independent until 1810 when it joined the Hawaiian Kingdom peacefully.{{rp|p=29–60}}

After Kamehameha II inherited the throne in 1819, American Protestant missionaries to Hawai{{okina}}i converted many Hawaiians to Christianity. Missionaries have argued that one function of missionary work was to "civilize" and "purify" perceived heathenism in the New World. This carried into Hawai{{okina}}i.{{Cite journal |last1=Flexner |first1=James L. |last2=McCoy |first2=Mark D. |title=After the Missionaries: Historical Archaeology and Traditional Religious Sites in the Hawaiian Islands |date=2016 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44012072 |journal=The Journal of the Polynesian Society |volume=125 |issue=3 |pages=307–331 |doi=10.15286/jps.125.3.307-332 |jstor=44012072 |issn=0032-4000}}{{Cite web |title=Cultural History of Three Traditional Hawaiian Sites (Chapter 5) |url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/kona/history5b.htm |access-date=2022-06-10 |website=www.nps.gov}}{{Cite thesis |last=Medeiros |first=Megan |date=June 2017 |title=Hawaiian History: The Dispossession of Native Hawaiians' Identity, and Their Struggle for Sovereignty |url=https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd/557 |type=MA thesis |publisher=California State University, San Bernardino }}{{Cite journal |last=Meller |first=Norman |date=1958 |title=Missionaries to Hawaii: Shapers of the Islands' Government |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/443652 |journal=The Western Political Quarterly |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=788–799 |doi=10.2307/443652 |jstor=443652 |issn=0043-4078}}{{Cite journal |last=Kashay |first=Jennifer Fish |date=2007 |title=Agents of Imperialism: Missionaries and Merchants in Early-Nineteenth-Century Hawaii |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20474535 |journal=The New England Quarterly |volume=80 |issue=2 |pages=280–298 |doi=10.1162/tneq.2007.80.2.280 |jstor=20474535 |s2cid=57560408 |issn=0028-4866}} According to historical archaeologist James L. Flexner, "missionaries provided the moral means to rationalize conquest and wholesale conversion to Christianity". But rather than abandon traditional beliefs entirely, most native Hawaiians merged their Indigenous religion with Christianity. Missionaries used their influence to end many traditional practices, including the kapu system, the prevailing legal system before European contact, and heiau, or "temples" to religious figures.{{Cite book|url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=i8RdAgAAQBAJ|page=165}}|title=Traditional Storytelling Today: An International Sourcebook|last=MacDonald|first=Margaret Read|date=December 16, 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781135917142|page=165}}{{Cite book|url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=_3DrC3iFfQQC|page=15}}|title=American Aloha: Cultural Tourism and the Negotiation of Tradition|last=Diamond|first=Heather A.|date=2008|publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press|isbn=9780824831714|page=15}} Kapu, which typically translates to "the sacred", refers to social regulations (like gender and class restrictions) that were based upon spiritual beliefs.

Under the missionaries' guidance, laws against gambling, consuming alcohol, dancing the hula, breaking the Sabbath, and polygamy were enacted. Without the kapu system, many temples and priestly statuses were jeopardized, idols were burned, and participation in Christianity increased. When Kamehameha III inherited the throne at age 12, his advisors pressured him to merge Christianity with traditional Hawaiian ways. Under the guidance of his kuhina nui (his mother and coregent Elizabeth Ka{{okina}}ahumanu) and British allies, Hawaiʻi turned into a Christian monarchy with the signing of the 1840 Constitution.{{cite web|url=http://hooilina.org/cgi-bin/journal?e=p-0journal--00-0-0-004-Document---0-1--1en-50---20-docoptions-search-issue---001-0110escapewin&a=p&p=frameset&cl=&d=HASH0166acfd8ec6df2fa38fd161.5.2.6|title=Ho'oilina Legacy Collection|website=hooilina.org|access-date=February 12, 2017|archive-date=December 12, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212213916/http://hooilina.org/cgi-bin/journal?e=p-0journal--00-0-0-004-Document---0-1--1en-50---20-docoptions-search-issue---001-0110escapewin&a=p&p=frameset&cl=&d=HASH0166acfd8ec6df2fa38fd161.5.2.6|url-status=live}} Hiram Bingham I, a prominent Protestant missionary, was a trusted adviser to the monarchy during this period. Other missionaries and their descendants became active in commercial and political affairs, leading to conflicts between the monarchy and its restive American subjects.{{Cite book|url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=O_3fCgAAQBAJ|page=572}}|title=World History: Journeys from Past to Present|last1=Goucher|first1=Candice|last2=Walton|first2=Linda|date=March 12, 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781135088293|page=572}} Missionaries from the Roman Catholic Church and from

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were also active in the kingdom, initially converting a minority of the Native Hawaiian population, but later becoming the first and second largest religious denominations on the islands, respectively.{{cite web|url=https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10524/240/JL07047.pdf?sequence=1|title=Religious Statistics of Hawaii, 1825–1972|last=Schmitt|first=Robert C.|page=43|type=Typographical error in "1950", meant to be "1850"|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525013217/https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10524/240/JL07047.pdf?sequence=1|archive-date=May 25, 2017|url-status=live}}{{Cite book|last=Wist |first=Benjamin O. |chapter=Hawaii – An Educational Experiment in American Democracy |chapter-url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=Bb0HAAAAMAAJ|page=5}}|title=Studies in the History of American Education|date=1947 |editor-last=Eggertsen |editor-first=Claude |publisher=University of Michigan School of Education |page=5}}{{Cite book|url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=HPyhAgAAQBAJ|page=89}}|title=Indigenous Symbols and Practices in the Catholic Church: Visual Culture, Missionization and Appropriation|last=Martin|first=Dr Kathleen J.|date=June 28, 2013|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=9781409480655|page=89}}{{cite web|url=https://www.thearda.com/rcms2010/rcms2010A.asp?U=15&T=state&Y=2010&S=adh|title=The Association of Religion Data Archives | State Membership Report|publisher=Thearda.com|access-date=April 19, 2021}} Missionaries from each major group administered to the leper colony at Kalaupapa on Moloka{{okina}}i, which was established in 1866 and operated well into the 20th century. The best known were Father Damien and Mother Marianne Cope, both of whom were canonized in the early 21st century as Roman Catholic saints.

The death of the bachelor King Kamehameha V—who did not name an heir—resulted in the popular election of Lunalilo over Kalākaua. Lunalilo died the next year, also without naming an heir. In 1874, the election was contested within the legislature between Kalākaua and Emma, Queen Consort of Kamehameha IV. After riots broke out, the U.S. and Britain landed troops on the islands to restore order. The Legislative Assembly chose King Kalākaua as monarch by a vote of 39 to{{spaces}}6 on February 12, 1874.{{cite web|url=http://www.ulukau.org/elib/cgi-bin/library?e=d-0kingdom3-000Sec--11en-50-20-frameset-book--1-010escapewin&a=d&d=D0.3&toc=0|title=Ulukau: The Hawaiian kingdom, vol. 3, 1874–1893, The Kalakaua dynasty|website=www.ulukau.org|access-date=February 12, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150120013821/http://www.ulukau.org/elib/cgi-bin/library?e=d-0kingdom3-000Sec--11en-50-20-frameset-book--1-010escapewin&a=d&d=D0.3&toc=0|archive-date=January 20, 2015|url-status=live}}

In 1887, Kalākaua was forced to sign the 1887 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawai{{okina}}i. Drafted by white businessmen and lawyers, the document stripped the king of much of his authority. It established a property qualification for voting that effectively disenfranchised most Hawaiians and immigrant laborers and favored the wealthier, white elite. Resident whites were allowed to vote but resident Asians were not. As the 1887 Constitution was signed under threat of violence, it is known as the Bayonet Constitution. King Kalākaua, reduced to a figurehead, reigned until his death in 1891. His sister, Queen Lili{{okina}}uokalani, succeeded him; she was the last monarch of Hawai{{okina}}i.{{cite web|url=http://www.ulukau.org/elib/cgi-bin/library?e=d-0kingdom3-000Sec--11en-50-20-frameset-book--1-010escapewin&a=d&d=D0.21&toc=0|title=Ulukau: The Hawaiian kingdom, vol. 3, 1874–1893, The Kalakaua dynasty|website=www.ulukau.org|access-date=February 12, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150120043915/http://www.ulukau.org/elib/cgi-bin/library?e=d-0kingdom3-000Sec--11en-50-20-frameset-book--1-010escapewin&a=d&d=D0.21&toc=0|archive-date=January 20, 2015|url-status=live}}

In 1893, Lili{{okina}}uokalani announced plans for a new constitution to proclaim herself an absolute monarch. On January 14, 1893, a group of mostly Euro-American business leaders and residents formed the Committee of Safety to stage a coup d'état against the kingdom and seek annexation by the United States. U.S. Government Minister John L. Stevens, responding to a request from the Committee of Safety, summoned a company of U.S. Marines. The queen's soldiers did not resist. According to historian William Russ, the monarchy was unable to protect itself.{{cite book | last = Russ | first = William Adam | title = The Hawaiian Revolution (1893–94) | publisher=Associated University Presses | year = 1992 | page = 350 | isbn = 978-0-945636-43-4}} In Hawaiian Autonomy, Lili{{Okina}}uokalani states:

If we did not by force resist their final outrage, it was because we could not do so without striking at the military force of the United States. Whatever constraint the executive of this great country may be under to recognize the present government at Honolulu has been forced upon it by no act of ours, but by the unlawful acts of its own agents. Attempts to repudiate those acts are vain.{{Cite web |title=Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen. |url=https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/liliuokalani/hawaii/hawaii.html#LVII |access-date=2022-06-10 |website=digital.library.upenn.edu}}{{Cite book |last=G. |first=Long, Michael |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1237408556 |title=We the Resistance Documenting a History of Nonviolent Protest in the United States. |date=2021 |publisher=City Lights Publishers |isbn=978-0-87286-851-9 |oclc=1237408556}}

Now to avoid any collision of armed forces and perhaps the loss of life, I do under this protest, and impelled by said force, yield my authority until such time as the Government of the United States shall, upon the facts being presented to it, undo the action of its representatives and reinstate me in the authority which I claim as the constitutional sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands.{{Cite web |title=Foreign Relations of the United States, 1894, Appendix II, Affairs in Hawaii – Office of the Historian |url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1894app2/d82 |access-date=2022-06-10 |website=history.state.gov}}

{{Main|Overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii|Provisional Government of Hawaii|Republic of Hawaii}}

{{See also|List of Hawaiian sovereignty movement groups#Historical – Royalist Organizations (from 1880s)}}The treason trials of 1892 brought together the main players in the 1893 overthrow. American Minister John L. Stevens voiced support for Native Hawaiian revolutionaries; William R. Castle, a Committee of Safety member, served as a defense counsel in the treason trials; Alfred Stedman Hartwell, the 1893 annexation commissioner, led the defense effort; and Sanford B. Dole ruled as a supreme court justice against acts of conspiracy and treason.{{Cite journal |last=Kam |first=Ralph Thomas |date=2021 |title=The First Attempt to Overthrow Lili'uokalani |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/840139 |journal=Hawaiian Journal of History |volume=55 |issue=1 |pages=41–69 |doi=10.1353/hjh.2021.0001 |s2cid=244912091 |issn=2169-7639}}File:Liliuokalani in 1891.jpg, the last reigning monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom|alt=Queen Lili{{okina}}uokalani, seated inside {{okina}}Iolani Palace]]

On January 17, 1893, a small group of sugar and pineapple-growing businessmen, aided by the American minister to Hawaii and backed by heavily armed U.S. soldiers and marines, deposed Queen Lili{{Okina}}uokalani and installed a provisional government composed of members of the Committee of Safety.{{Cite web |title=Digital History |url=https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=1283 |access-date=2022-06-10 |website=www.digitalhistory.uh.edu}} According to scholar Lydia Kualapai and Hawaii State Representative Roy Takumi, this committee was formed against the will of Indigenous Hawaiian voters, who constituted the majority of voters at the time, and consisted of "thirteen white men" according to scholar J Kehaulani Kauanui.{{Cite journal |last=Kualapai |first=Lydia |date=2005 |title=The Queen Writes Back: Lili'uokalani's Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20737264 |journal=Studies in American Indian Literatures |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=32–62 |doi=10.1353/ail.2005.0053 |jstor=20737264 |s2cid=161123895 |issn=0730-3238}} The United States Minister to the Kingdom of Hawaii (John L. Stevens) conspired with U.S. citizens to overthrow the monarchy. After the overthrow, Sanford B. Dole, a citizen of Hawaii and cousin to James Dole, owner of Hawaiian Fruit Company, a company that benefited from the annexation of Hawaii, became president of the republic when the Provisional Government of Hawai{{okina}}i ended on July 4, 1894.{{Cite journal |last=Hawkins |first=Richard A. |journal=Hawaiian Journal of History |volume=41 |date=2007 |title=James D. Dole and the 1932 Failure of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company |url=http://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10524/12232 |language=en-US}}{{Cite journal |last=Coulter |first=John Wesley |date=1934 |title=Pineapple Industry in Hawaii |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/140126 |journal=Economic Geography |volume=10 |issue=3 |pages=288–296 |doi=10.2307/140126 |jstor=140126 |issn=0013-0095}}

Controversy ensued in the following years as the queen tried to regain her throne. Scholar Lydia Kualapai writes that Lili{{okina}}uokalani had "yielded under protest not to the counterfeit Provisional Government of Hawaii but to the superior force of the United States of America" and wrote letters of protest to the president requesting a recognizance of allyship and a reinstatement of her sovereignty against the recent actions of the Provisional Government of Hawaii. Following the January 1893 coup that deposed Lili{{Okina}}uokalani, many royalists were preparing to overthrow the white-led Republic of Hawai{{okina}}i oligarchy. Hundreds of rifles were covertly shipped to Hawaii and hidden in caves nearby. As armed troops came and went, a Republic of Hawai{{okina}}i patrol discovered the rebel group. On January 6, 1895, gunfire began on both sides and later the rebels were surrounded and captured. Over the next 10 days several skirmishes occurred, until the last armed opposition surrendered or were captured. The Republic of Hawai{{okina}}i took 123 troops into custody as prisoners of war. The mass arrest of nearly 300 more men and women, including Queen Lili{{Okina}}uokalani, as political prisoners was intended to incapacitate the political resistance against the ruling oligarchy. In March 1895, a military tribunal convicted 170 prisoners of treason and sentenced six troops to be "hung by the neck" until dead, according to historian Ronald Williams Jr. The other prisoners were variously sentenced to from five to thirty-five years' imprisonment at hard labor, while those convicted of lesser charges received sentences from six months' to six years' imprisonment at hard labor.{{cite journal |last=Williams |first=Ronald Jr. |date=2021 |title=Incarcerating a Nation: The Arrest and Imprisonment of Political Prisoners by the Republic of Hawai{{okina}}i, 1895 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/840143 |journal=Hawaiian Journal of History |volume=55 |issue=1 |pages=167–176 |doi=10.1353/hjh.2021.0005 |s2cid=244913179 |issn=2169-7639}} The queen was sentenced to five years in prison, but spent eight months under house arrest until she was released on parole.{{cite book |last=Menton |first=Linda K. |title=A History of Hawaii, Student Book |publisher=Curriculum Research & Development Group |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-937049-94-5 |edition=2nd |location=Honolulu, HI}} The total number of arrests related to the 1895 Kaua Kūloko was 406 people on a summary list of statistics, published by the government of the Republic of Hawai{{okina}}i.

The administration of President Grover Cleveland commissioned the Blount Report, which concluded that the removal of Lili{{okina}}uokalani had been illegal. Commissioner Blount found the U.S. and its minister guilty on all counts including the overthrow, the landing of the marines, and the recognition of the provisional government.{{cite book |last=Trask |first=Haunani-Kay |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9780824847029/html |title=From a Native Daughter |date=2021-05-25 |publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press |isbn=978-0-8248-4702-9 |doi=10.1515/9780824847029}} In a message to Congress, Cleveland wrote:

And finally, but for the lawless occupation of Honolulu under false pretexts by the United States forces, and but for Minister Stevens' recognition of the provisional government when the United States forces were its sole support and constituted its only military strength, the Queen and her Government would never have yielded to the provisional government, even for a time and for the sole purpose of submitting her case to the enlightened justice of the United States. By an act of war, committed with the participation of a diplomatic representative of the United States and without authority of Congress, the Government of a feeble but friendly and confiding people has been overthrown. A substantial wrong has thus been done which a due regard for our national character as well as the rights of the injured people requires we should endeavor to repair. The provisional government has not assumed a republican or other constitutional form, but has remained a mere executive council or oligarchy, set up without the assent of the people. It has not sought to find a permanent basis of popular support and has given no evidence of an intention to do so.

{{Main|Organic act#List of organic acts|Territory of Hawaii}}

File:1899BalanceCartoon.jpg stereotype; the figures are Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Cuba, Philippines and "Ladrones" (the Mariana Islands, including Guam).]]

After William McKinley won the 1896 U.S. presidential election, advocates pressed to annex the Republic of Hawai{{okina}}i. The previous president, Grover Cleveland, was a friend of Queen Lili{{okina}}uokalani. McKinley was open to persuasion by U.S. expansionists and by annexationists from Hawai{{okina}}i. He met with three non-native annexationists: Lorrin A. Thurston, Francis March Hatch and William Ansel Kinney. After negotiations in June 1897, Secretary of State John Sherman agreed to a treaty of annexation with these representatives of the Republic of Hawai{{okina}}i.{{cite web |website= The Morgan Report |url= http://morganreport.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=1897_Annexation_Treaty |title= 1897 Hawaii Annexation Treaty |access-date= August 14, 2010 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100825165348/http://morganreport.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=1897_Annexation_Treaty |archive-date= August 25, 2010 |url-status= live }} The U.S. Senate never ratified the treaty. Despite the opposition of most native Hawaiians,{{cite web |url=http://libweb.hawaii.edu/digicoll/annexation/pet-intro.html |title=Anti-annexation petitions—Page 1 |publisher=Libweb.hawaii.edu |access-date=March 9, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120317183803/http://libweb.hawaii.edu/digicoll/annexation/pet-intro.html |archive-date=March 17, 2012 }} the Newlands Resolution was used to annex the republic to the U.S.; it became the Territory of Hawai{{okina}}i. The Newlands Resolution was passed by the House on June 15, 1898, by 209 votes in favor to 91 against, and by the Senate on July 6, 1898, by a vote of 42 to 21.{{Cite book|url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=IjZPcGb2R08C|page=209}}|title=Who Owns the Crown Lands of Hawai_i?|last=Dyke|first=Jon M. Van|date=January 1, 2008|publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press|isbn=9780824832117|page=209}}{{cite web|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SDU18980616.2.60|title=Sacramento Daily Union 16 June 1898—California Digital Newspaper Collection|website=cdnc.ucr.edu|access-date=February 12, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170213163714/https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SDU18980616.2.60|archive-date=February 13, 2017|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://hrmakahinui.com/Timeline_Kingdom_of_Hawaii.php|title=Annexation Timeline—of the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii|website=hrmakahinui.com|access-date=February 12, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161117074544/http://hrmakahinui.com/Timeline_Kingdom_of_Hawaii.php|archive-date=November 17, 2016|url-status=usurped}}

A majority of Native Hawaiians opposed annexation, voiced chiefly by Lili{{okina}}uokalani, whom Hawaiian Haunani-Kay Trask described as beloved and respected by her people.{{Cite journal |last1=Franklin |first1=Cynthia |last2=Lyons |first2=Laura E. |title=Land, Leadership, and Nation: Haunani-Kay Trask on the Testimonial Uses of Life Writing in Hawai{{okina}}i |date=2004 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23540436 |journal=Biography |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=222–249 |jstor=23540436 |issn=0162-4962}} Lili{{okina}}uokalani wrote, "it had not entered into our hearts to believe that these friends and allies from the United States ... would ever go so far as to absolutely overthrow our form of government, seize our nation by the throat, and pass it over to an alien power" in her retelling of the overthrow of her government.{{Cite book |author=Liliuokalani, Queen of Hawaii |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1262093837 |title=Hawaii's story by Hawaii's Queen |date=February 23, 2021 |publisher=Mint Editions |isbn=978-1-5132-0902-9 |oclc=1262093837}} According to Trask, newspapers at the time argued Hawaiians would suffer "virtual enslavement under annexation", including further loss of lands and liberties, in particular to sugar plantation owners.{{Cite book |last=Trask |first=Haunani-Kay |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1256413351 |title=From a Native Daughter : Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawaii |year=1999 |publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press |isbn=978-0-8248-4702-9 |oclc=1256413351|edition=Revised }} These plantations were protected by the U.S. Navy as economic interests, justifying a continued military presence in the islands.

In 1900, Hawai{{okina}}i was granted self-governance and retained {{okina}}Iolani Palace as the territorial capitol building. Despite several attempts to become a state, Hawaii remained a territory for 60 years. Plantation owners and capitalists, who maintained control through financial institutions such as the Big Five, found territorial status convenient because they remained able to import cheap, foreign labor. Such immigration and labor practices were prohibited in many states.{{cite web|url=https://www.abebooks.co.uk/Hawaii-Statehood-Honolulu-Star-Bulletin/7223272607/bd|title=Hawaii Statehood—Honolulu Star-Bulletin by Hawaii: Honolulu, Hawaii No binding—Seth Kaller Inc|website=www.abebooks.co.uk|access-date=February 12, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170213164159/https://www.abebooks.co.uk/Hawaii-Statehood-Honolulu-Star-Bulletin/7223272607/bd|archive-date=February 13, 2017|url-status=live}}

File:USS SHAW exploding Pearl Harbor Nara 80-G-16871 2.jpg in 1941 was the primary event which caused the United States to enter World War II.]]

Puerto Rican immigration to Hawai{{okina}}i began in 1899, when Puerto Rico's sugar industry was devastated by a hurricane, causing a worldwide shortage of sugar and a huge demand for sugar from Hawai{{okina}}i. Hawaiian sugarcane plantation owners began to recruit experienced, unemployed laborers in Puerto Rico. Two waves of Korean immigration to Hawai{{okina}}i occurred in the 20th century. The first wave arrived between 1903 and 1924; the second wave began in 1965 after President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which removed racial and national barriers and resulted in significantly altering the demographic mix in the U.S.{{cite news |title=1965 immigration law changed face of America |author=Jennifer Ludden |newspaper=NPR.org |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5391395 |publisher=NPR |access-date=September 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161021143552/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5391395 |archive-date=October 21, 2016 |url-status=live }}

O{{okina}}ahu was the target of a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by Imperial Japan on December 7, 1941. The attack on Pearl Harbor and other military and naval installations, carried out by aircraft and by midget submarines, brought the United States into World War II.

{{Main|Hawaii Democratic Revolution of 1954|Hawaii Admission Act|Admission to the Union|List of U.S. states by date of admission to the Union}}

{{See also|List of Hawaiian sovereignty movement groups#Modern – Sovereignty Organizations (1960s–present)}}

File:Food-Hawaii-Canning. Native girls packing pineapple into cans. - NARA - 522863.tif

In the 1950s, the plantation owners' power was broken by the descendants of immigrant laborers, who were born in Hawai{{okina}}i and were U.S. citizens. They voted against the Hawai{{okina}}i Republican Party, strongly supported by plantation owners. The new majority voted for the Democratic Party of Hawai{{okina}}i, which dominated territorial and state politics for more than 40 years. Eager to gain full representation in Congress and the Electoral College, residents actively campaigned for statehood. In Washington, there was talk that Hawai{{okina}}i would be a Republican Party stronghold. As a result, the admission of Hawaii was matched with the admission of Alaska, which was seen as a Democratic Party stronghold. These predictions proved inaccurate; as of 2017, Hawai{{okina}}i generally votes Democratic, while Alaska typically votes Republican.{{cite web|url=http://www.gallup.com/poll/188969/red-states-outnumber-blue-first-time-gallup-tracking.aspx|title=Red States Outnumber Blue for First Time in Gallup Tracking|website=gallup.com|access-date=January 5, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170104092539/http://www.gallup.com/poll/188969/red-states-outnumber-blue-first-time-gallup-tracking.aspx|archive-date=January 4, 2017|url-status=live|date=February 3, 2016}}[ 2016 election result—Politico]{{cite journal|url=https://www.boundless.com/political-science/textbooks/boundless-political-science-textbook/interest-groups-7/modern-political-parties-59/red-states-vs-blue-states-337-4262/|title=Red States vs. Blue States|last=Boundless|date=August 8, 2016|website=Boundless.com|access-date=January 5, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161112151613/https://www.boundless.com/political-science/textbooks/boundless-political-science-textbook/interest-groups-7/modern-political-parties-59/red-states-vs-blue-states-337-4262/|archive-date=November 12, 2016|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://elections.nbcnews.com/ns/politics/2012/all/president/|title=2012 Presidential Race—Election Results by State—NBC News|date=December 2, 2011|website=nbcnews.com|access-date=January 5, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170106174223/http://elections.nbcnews.com/ns/politics/2012/all/president/|archive-date=January 6, 2017|url-status=live}}

During the Cold War, Hawai{{okina}}i became an important site for U.S. cultural diplomacy, military training, research, and as a staging ground for the U.S. war in Vietnam.{{Cite book |last=Cheng |first=Wendy |title=Island X: Taiwanese Student Migrants, Campus Spies, and Cold War Activism |date=2023 |publisher=University of Washington Press |isbn=9780295752051 |location=Seattle, WA}}{{Rp|page=105}}

In March 1959, Congress passed the Hawai{{okina}}i Admissions Act, which U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law.{{cite video |title=Video: Aloha Hawaii. islanders Celebrate Long-Sought Statehood, 1959/03/16 (1959) |url=https://archive.org/details/1959-03-16_Aloha_Hawaii |url-status=live |publisher=Universal Newsreel |year=1959 |access-date=February 20, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120515045750/https://archive.org/details/1959-03-16_Aloha_Hawaii |archive-date=May 15, 2012}} The act excluded Palmyra Atoll from statehood; it had been part of the Kingdom and Territory of Hawai{{okina}}i. On June 27, 1959, a referendum asked residents of Hawai{{okina}}i to vote on the statehood bill; 94.3% voted in favor of statehood and 5.7% opposed it.{{cite web |url=http://archive.lingle.hawaii.gov/govgallery/news/files/2009/march/celebrating-50-years-of-statehood |title=Commemorating 50 Years of Statehood |website=archive.lingle.hawaii.gov |publisher=State of Hawaii |date=March 18, 2009 |access-date=March 21, 2014 |quote=On June 27, 1959, a plebiscite was held to allow Hawai{{okina}}i residents to ratify the congressional vote for statehood. The 'yes for statehood' garnered 94.3 percent (132,773 votes) while the 'no' ballots totaled 5.7 percent (7,971 votes). |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140321081230/http://archive.lingle.hawaii.gov/govgallery/news/files/2009/march/celebrating-50-years-of-statehood |archive-date=March 21, 2014}} The referendum asked voters to choose between accepting the Act and remaining a U.S. territory. The United Nations' Special Committee on Decolonization later removed Hawai{{okina}}i from its list of non-self-governing territories.

After attaining statehood, Hawai{{okina}}i quickly modernized through construction and a rapidly growing tourism economy. Later, state programs promoted Hawaiian culture.{{which|date=March 2015}} The Hawai{{okina}}i State Constitutional Convention of 1978 created institutions such as the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to promote indigenous language and culture.{{cite journal |last=Van Dyke |first=Jon |title=The Constitutionality of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs |url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/uhawlr7&div=9&id=&page= |url-status=live |journal=University of Hawaiʻi Law Review |volume=7 |page=63 |date=1985 |access-date=June 18, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200921094007/https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals%2Fuhawlr7&div=9&id=&page= |archive-date=September 21, 2020}}

In 1897, over 21,000 Natives, representing the overwhelming majority of adult Hawaiians, signed anti-annexation petitions in one of the first examples of protest against the overthrow of Queen Lili{{okina}}uokalani's government.{{cite journal |last=Trask |first=Haunani-Kay |date=2000 |title=Native Social Capital: The Case of Hawaiian Sovereignty and Ka Lahui Hawaii |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4532510 |journal=Policy Sciences |volume=33 |issue=3/4 |pages=375–385 |doi=10.1023/A:1004870517612 |jstor=4532510 |s2cid=152872242 |issn=0032-2687}} Nearly 100 years later, in 1993, 17,000 Hawaiians marched to demand access and control over Hawaiian trust lands and as part of the modern Hawaiian sovereignty movement.{{Cite book |first=Winona |last=LaDuke |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1099066009 |title=All our relations : native struggles for land and life |date=2017 |publisher=Haymarket Books |isbn=978-1-60846-661-0 |oclc=1099066009}} Hawaiian trust land ownership and use is still widely contested as a consequence of annexation. According to scholar Winona LaDuke, as of 2015, 95% of Hawai{{okina}}i's land was owned or controlled by just 82 landholders, including over 50% by federal and state governments, as well as the established sugar and pineapple companies. The Thirty Meter Telescope is planned to be built on Hawaiian trust land, but has faced resistance as the project {{Clarify span|date=April 2023|text=interferes with Kanaka indigeneity.}}{{Cite journal |last=Casumbal-Salazar |first=Iokepa |date=2017 |title=A Fictive Kinship: Making 'Modernity,' 'Ancient Hawaiians,' and the Telescopes on Mauna Kea |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/natiindistudj.4.2.0001 |journal=Native American and Indigenous Studies |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=1–30 |doi=10.5749/natiindistudj.4.2.0001 |jstor=10.5749/natiindistudj.4.2.0001 |s2cid=165414887 |issn=2332-1261}}

{{See also|Hawaii statistical areas}}

File:Hawaii population density 2020.png

{{US Census population

|1850 = 84165

|1860 = 69800

|1890 = 89990

|1900 = 154001

|1910 = 191909

|1920 = 255912

|1930 = 368336

|1940 = 423330

|1950 = 499794

|1960 = 632772

|1970 = 768561

|1980 = 964691

|1990 = 1108229

|2000 = 1211537

|2010 = 1360301

|2020 = 1455271

|estyear = 2024

|estimate = 1446146

|estref = {{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/data/tables.html|title=Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Counties: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2024|publisher=United States Census Bureau|access-date=December 26, 2024}}

|source=1778–1896{{cite book|last=Schmitt|first=Robert C.|title=Demographic Statistics of Hawaii, 1778–1965|url=https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/30985/DemographicStatisticsHawaii.pdf|year=1968|publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press|location=Honolulu, HI|hdl=10125/30985|oclc=760489664|pages=41, 69|access-date=November 23, 2020|archive-date=February 20, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210220153411/https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/30985/DemographicStatisticsHawaii.pdf|url-status=dead}} 1910–2020{{cite web |title=Historical Population Change Data (1910–2020) |url=https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/dec/popchange-data-text.html |website=Census.gov |publisher=United States Census Bureau |access-date=May 1, 2021 |archive-date=April 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210429012609/https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/dec/popchange-data-text.html |url-status=dead}}

|footnote = 1778 (est.) = 300000, 1819 (est.) = 145000, 1835–1836 = 107954, 1872 = 56897, 1884 = 80578, 1896 = 109020

}}

After Europeans and mainland Americans first arrived during the Kingdom of Hawaii period, the overall population of Hawaii—which until that time composed solely of Indigenous Hawaiians—fell dramatically. Many people of the Indigenous Hawaiian population died to foreign diseases, declining from an estimated 300,000 in the 1770s, to 60,000 in the 1850s, to 24,000 in 1920. Other estimates for the pre-contact population range from 150,000 to 1.5 million. The population of Hawaii began to finally increase after an influx of primarily Asian settlers that arrived as migrant laborers at the end of the 19th{{spaces}}century.{{cite web |url=http://www.hawaiianencyclopedia.com/population-and-visitor-statist.asp |title=Hawaiian Encyclopedia : Population and Visitor Statistics |publisher=Hawaiianencyclopedia.com |date=July 1, 2002 |access-date=January 21, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131214051108/http://www.hawaiianencyclopedia.com/population-and-visitor-statist.asp |archive-date=December 14, 2013 |url-status=live }} In 1923, 42% of the population was of Japanese descent, 9% of Chinese descent, and 16% Native Hawaiian descent.{{cite magazine |title=The States|url=https://time.com/vault/issue/1923-03-03/page/8/ |author= |magazine=Time |page=8 |date=March 3, 1923 |access-date=March 1, 2021}}

In 2010, 156,000 residents declared themselves to be solely of Native Hawaiian ancestry, just over half the estimated pre-contact population. An additional 371,000 declared themselves to possess Native Hawaiian ancestry in combination with one or more other races (including other Polynesian groups, but mostly Asian or White).

In 2018, the United States Census Bureau estimated the population of Hawaii to be 1,420,491, a decrease of 7,047 from the previous year but an increase of 60,190 (4.42%) since 2010. This includes a natural increase of 48,111 (96,028 births minus 47,917 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 16,956 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 30,068; migration within the country produced a net loss of 13,112 people.{{cite web|last=Lee|first=Fiona|date=December 29, 2020|title=People leaving Hawaii doubled in 2020|url=https://www.sfgate.com/hawaii/article/hawaii-exodus-2020-people-leaving-doubles-15832708.php|access-date=December 29, 2020|website=SFGATE}}{{Update inline|reason=This paragraph was unsourced. It needs to be completely rewritten using this citation I added|date=December 2020}}

The center of population of Hawaii is located on the island of O'ahu. Large numbers of Native Hawaiians have moved to Las Vegas, which has been called the "ninth island" of Hawaii.{{cite web |title=Las Vegas: Bright Lights, Big City, Small Town |url=http://stateofthereunion.com/home/season-2-2/las-vegas-nv |url-status=dead |publisher=State of the Reunion |access-date=July 5, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130602145540/http://stateofthereunion.com/home/season-2-2/las-vegas-nv |archive-date=June 2, 2013}}{{cite news |title=Hawaii's ninth island offers everything we need |url=http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2010/Apr/11/tr/hawaii4110346.html |url-status=live |newspaper=Honolulu Advertiser |access-date=July 6, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140110090555/http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2010/Apr/11/tr/hawaii4110346.html |archive-date=January 10, 2014}}

Hawaii has a de facto population of over 1.4{{spaces}}million, due in part to a large number of military personnel and tourist residents. O'ahu is the most populous island; it has the highest population density with a resident population of just under one million in {{convert|597|sqmi|km2|0}}, approximately 1,650 people per square mile.{{efn|For comparison, New Jersey—which has 8,717,925 people in {{convert|7417|sqmi|km2|0}}—is the most-densely populated state in the Union with 1,134 people per square mile.}}{{cite web|title=Latest Population Estimate Data|url=https://census.hawaii.gov/home/population-estimate/|access-date=May 19, 2021|website=census.hawaii.gov}} Hawaii's 1.4{{spaces}}million residents, spread across {{convert|6000|mi2|-2}} of land, result in an average population density of 188.6 persons per square mile.{{cite web |url=http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/15000.html |title=Hawaii Quickfacts |publisher=Quickfacts.census.gov |access-date=November 5, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111028063456/http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/15000.html |archive-date=October 28, 2011}} The state has a lower population density than Ohio and Illinois.{{cite web|url=http://2010.census.gov/2010census/data/apportionment-dens-text.php#AREA_HI |title=Resident Population Data—2010 Census |website=2010 Census |publisher=U.S. Census Bureau |location=Washington, DC |access-date=May 7, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111028061117/http://2010.census.gov/2010census/data/apportionment-dens-text.php |archive-date=October 28, 2011 }}

The average projected lifespan of people born in Hawaii in 2000 is 79.8 years; 77.1 years if male, 82.5 if female—longer than the average lifespan of any other U.S. state.{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/population/projections/MethTab2.xls|archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20100615135706/http://www.census.gov/population/projections/MethTab2.xls|archive-date=June 15, 2010|title=Average life expectancy at birth by state|access-date=November 5, 2011|url-status=dead}} {{As of|2011}} the U.S. military reported it had 42,371 personnel on the islands.{{cite web|title=Active Duty Military Personnel Strengths by Regional Area and by Country (309A)|url=http://siadapp.dmdc.osd.mil/personnel/MILITARY/history/hst1109.pdf|website=Department of Defense|access-date=October 21, 2013|date=September 30, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019001235/http://siadapp.dmdc.osd.mil/personnel/MILITARY/history/hst1109.pdf|archive-date=October 19, 2012}}

According to HUD's 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, there were an estimated 5,967 homeless people in Hawaii.{{Cite web |title=2007–2022 PIT Counts by State |url=https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.huduser.gov%2Fportal%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fxls%2F2007-2022-PIT-Counts-by-State.xlsx&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK}}{{Cite web |title=The 2022 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress |url=https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2022-AHAR-Part-1.pdf}}

In 2018, The top countries of origin for immigrants in Hawaii were the Philippines, China, Japan, Korea and the Marshall Islands.{{Cite web|url=https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/sites/default/files/research/immigrants_in_hawaii.pdf|title=Immigrants in Hawaii}}

{{further|Native Hawaiians|White Americans in Hawaii|Filipinos in Hawaii|Japanese in Hawaii}}

File:Early Japanese immigrants to Hawaii.jpg immigration to Hawaii was largely fueled by the high demand for plantation labor in Hawaii post-annexation.]]

According to the 2020 United States Census, Hawaii had a population of 1,455,271. The state's population identified as 37.2% Asian; 25.3% Multiracial; 22.9% White; 10.8% Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders; 9.5% Hispanic and Latinos of any race; 1.6% Black or African American; 1.8% from some other race; and 0.3% Native American and Alaskan Native.{{cite web|url=https://data.indystar.com/census/total-population/total-population-change/hawaii/040-15/|title=How many people live in Hawaii|author=U.S. Census Bureau}}

Hawaii has the highest percentage of Asian Americans and multiracial Americans and the lowest percentage of White Americans of any state. It is the only state where people who identify as Asian Americans are the largest ethnic group. In 2012, 14.5% of the resident population under age 1 was non-Hispanic white.{{cite news|url=http://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/index.ssf/2012/06/americas_under_age_1_populatio.html|title=Americans under age 1 now mostly minorities, but not in Ohio: Statistical Snapshot|last=Exner|first=Rich|date=June 3, 2012|work=The Plain Dealer|access-date=November 4, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160714084214/http://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/index.ssf/2012/06/americas_under_age_1_populatio.html|archive-date=July 14, 2016|url-status=live}} Hawaii's Asian population consists mainly of 198,000 (14.6%) Filipino Americans, 185,000 (13.6%) Japanese Americans, roughly 55,000 (4.0%) Chinese Americans, and 24,000 (1.8%) Korean Americans.

Over 120,000 (8.8%) Hispanic and Latino Americans live in Hawaii. Mexican Americans number over 35,000 (2.6%); Puerto Ricans exceed 44,000 (3.2%). Multiracial Americans constitute almost 25% of Hawaii's population, exceeding 320,000 people. Hawaii is the only state to have a tri-racial group as its largest multiracial group, one that includes white, Asian and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (22% of all mutiracial population).{{cite web|title=Hawaii is home to the nation's largest share of multiracial Americans|url=https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/06/17/hawaii-is-home-to-the-nations-largest-share-of-multiracial-americans/|access-date=December 14, 2020|website=Pew Research Center|date=June 17, 2015 }} The non-Hispanic White population numbers around 310,000—just over 20% of the population. The multi-racial population outnumbers the non-Hispanic white population by about 10,000 people. In 1970, the Census Bureau reported Hawaii's population was 38.8% white and 57.7% Asian and Pacific Islander.{{cite web|title=Hawaii—Race and Hispanic Origin: 1900 to 1990 |publisher=U.S. Census Bureau |url=https://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056/twps0056.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725044857/http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056/twps0056.html |archive-date=July 25, 2008}}

There are more than 80,000 Indigenous Hawaiians—5.9% of the population.{{cite web|url=http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=DEC_10_DP_DPDP1&prodType=table |archive-url=https://archive.today/20190521214830/https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=DEC_10_DP_DPDP1&prodType=table |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 21, 2019 |title=Profile of General Population and Housing Characteristics: 2010 Demographic Profile Data |publisher=US Census Bureau |access-date=May 22, 2012}} Including those with partial ancestry, Samoan Americans constitute 2.8% of Hawaii's population, and Tongan Americans constitute 0.6%.{{cite web|title=Race Reporting for the Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander Population by Selected Categories: 2010|url=http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=DEC_10_SF1_QTP9&prodType=table|archive-url=https://archive.today/20150328060334/http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=DEC_10_SF1_QTP9&prodType=table|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 28, 2015|publisher=US Census Bureau|access-date=April 29, 2013}}

The five largest European ancestries in Hawaii are German (7.4%), Irish (5.2%), English (4.6%), Portuguese (4.3%) and Italian (2.7%). About 82.2% of the state's residents were born in the United States. Roughly 75% of foreign-born residents originate from Asia. Hawaii is a majority-minority state. It was expected to be one of three states that would not have a non-Hispanic white plurality in 2014; the other two are California and New Mexico.{{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-population-california-idUSBRE91006920130201 |title=California's Hispanic population projected to outnumber white in 2014 |publisher=Reuters |date=January 31, 2013 |access-date=July 1, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151017075415/http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/01/us-usa-population-california-idUSBRE91006920130201 |archive-date=October 17, 2015 |url-status=live}}

File:Hawaiʻi Demographics Map.png

The third group of foreigners to arrive in Hawaii were from China. Chinese workers on Western trading ships settled in Hawaii starting in 1789. In 1820, the first American missionaries arrived to preach Christianity and teach the Hawaiians Western ways.{{cite book |last1=Williams |first1=Charles |title=The Missionary Gazetteer: Comprising a Geographical and Statistical Account of the Various Stations of the Church, London, Moravian, Wesleyan, Baptist, and American, Missionary Societies Etc., With Their Progress in Evangelization and Civilization |others=B B Edwards |url={{google books |plainurl=y|id=V6YNAAAAQAAJ|page=42}} |access-date=May 3, 2012 |edition=America |series=CIHM/ICMH microfiche series, no. 35042 (also ATLA monograph preservation program; ATLA fiche 1988–3226) |year=1832 |orig-year=1828 |publisher=W. Hyde & Co |location=Boston, MA |isbn=978-0-665-35042-9 |id={{OCLC|657191416|718098082|719990067|680518873}} |page=424}} {{As of|2015}}, a large proportion of Hawaii's population have Asian ancestry—especially Filipino, Japanese and Chinese. Many are descendants of immigrants brought to work on the sugarcane plantations in the mid-to-late 19th century. The first 153 Japanese immigrants arrived in Hawaii on June 19, 1868. They were not approved by the then-current Japanese government because the contract was between a broker and the Tokugawa shogunate—by then replaced by the Meiji Restoration. The first Japanese current-government-approved immigrants arrived on February 9, 1885, after Kalākaua's petition to Emperor Meiji when Kalākaua visited Japan in 1881.{{cite web |url=http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2007/05/10/000016406_20070510133229/Rendered/PDF/wps4203.pdf |title=Latin Americans of Japanese Origin (Nikkeijin) Working in Japan—A Survey |first=Junichi |last=Goto |date=April 2007 |website=Documents & Reports—All Documents | The World Bank |publisher=World Bank |location=Washington, DC |pages=5, 48 |access-date=May 3, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120611133213/http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2007/05/10/000016406_20070510133229/Rendered/PDF/wps4203.pdf |archive-date=June 11, 2012 |url-status=live}}{{cite web |url=http://www.hawaiialive.org/realms.php?sub=Wao+Lani&treasure=369&offset=0 |title=+ Hawaii Alive | Realms: Wao Lani + |website=Hawaii Alive |location=Honolulu, HI |publisher=Bishop Museum |access-date=May 3, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426110326/http://www.hawaiialive.org/realms.php?sub=Wao+Lani&treasure=369&offset=0 |archive-date=April 26, 2012 |url-status=live}}

Almost 13,000 Portuguese migrants had arrived by 1899; they also worked on the sugarcane plantations.{{cite journal |last=Hoffman |first=Frederic L. |date=September 1899 |title=The Portuguese Population in the United States |journal=Publications of the American Statistical Association |volume=6 |issue=47 |pages=327–336 |oclc=11137237 |jstor=2276463 |s2cid=128107627 |doi=10.2307/2276463}}{{Subscription required}} See pp. 332–333. By 1901, more than 5,000 Puerto Ricans were living in Hawaii.{{cite encyclopedia |last=López |first=Iris |editor=Ruiz, Vicki L. |editor2=Korrol, Virginia Sánchez |encyclopedia=Latinas in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia |title=Puerto Ricans in Hawaii |series=Gale Virtual Reference Library |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=_62IjQ-XQScC |page=591}} |access-date=May 3, 2012 |date=May 3, 2006 |publisher=Indiana University Press |volume=2 |location=Bloomington, IN |id={{OCLC|74671044|748855661|756540171}} |isbn=978-0-253-34680-3 |pages=591–95}}

File:Portuguese immigrant family in Hawaii during the 19th century.jpg immigrants were Azorean or Madeiran. They brought with them Catholicism and Portuguese language and cuisine.]]

English and Hawaiian are listed as Hawaii's official languages in the state's 1978 constitution, in Article XV, Section 4.{{cite web|title=The Constitution of the State of Hawaii|url=http://lrbhawaii.org/con/constitution/CONST%200015-0004.html|access-date=February 4, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180126122307/http://lrbhawaii.org/con/constitution/CONST%200015-0004.html|archive-date=January 26, 2018|url-status=live}} However, the use of Hawaiian is limited because the constitution specifies that "Hawaiian shall be required for public acts and transactions only as provided by law". Hawaiʻi Creole English, locally referred to as "Pidgin", is the native language of many native residents and is a second language for many others.{{Cite web|author=Bu Kerry Chan Laddaran, Special to|title=Pidgin English is now an official language of Hawaii|url=https://www.cnn.com/2015/11/12/living/pidgin-english-hawaii/index.html|access-date=February 17, 2021|website=CNN|date=November 12, 2015}}

As of the 2000 Census, 73.4% of Hawaii residents age{{spaces}}5 and older exclusively speak English at home.{{cite web |url=http://www.mla.org/map_data_results&state_id=15&mode=state_tops |title=Language Map Data Center |publisher=Mla.org |date=July 17, 2007 |access-date=November 5, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110831190300/http://www.mla.org/map_data_results%26state_id%3D15%26mode%3Dstate_tops |archive-date=August 31, 2011 |url-status=live }} According to the 2008 American Community Survey, 74.6% of Hawaii's residents older than{{spaces}}5 speak only English at home. In their homes, 21.0% of state residents speak an additional Asian language, 2.6% speak Spanish, 1.6% speak other Indo-European languages and 0.2% speak another language.

After English, other languages popularly spoken in the state are Tagalog, Ilocano, and Japanese.{{cite web |url=https://files.hawaii.gov/dbedt/census/acs/Report/Detailed_Language_March2016.pdf |title=DETAILED LANGUAGES SPOKEN AT HOME IN THE STATE OF HAWAII |publisher=Hawaii State Data Center |date=March 2016 |page=iii |access-date=12 June 2023}} 5.4% of residents speak Tagalog, which includes non-native speakers of Filipino, a Tagalog-based national and co-official language of the Philippines; 5.0% speak Japanese and 4.0% speak Ilocano; 1.2% speak Chinese, 1.7% speak Hawaiian; 1.7% speak Spanish; 1.6% speak Korean; and 1.0% speak Samoan.

{{main|Hawaiian language}}

The Hawaiian language has about 2,000 native speakers, about 0.15% of the total population. According to the United States Census, there were more than 24,000 total speakers of the language in Hawaii in 2006–2008.{{cite web |url=https://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/language/data/other/detailed-lang-tables.xls |title=Table 1. Detailed Languages Spoken at Home and Ability to Speak English for the Population 5 Years and Over for the United States: 2006–2008 |date=April 2010 |website=American Community Survey Data on Language Use |publisher=U.S. Census Bureau |location=Washington, DC |access-date=May 7, 2012 |format=MS-Excel Spreadsheet |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140922225023/https://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/language/data/other/detailed-lang-tables.xls |archive-date=September 22, 2014 |url-status=live}} Hawaiian is a Polynesian member of the Austronesian language family.{{Cite book | last = Lyovin | first = Anatole V. | title = An Introduction to the Languages of the World | location = New York | publisher=Oxford University Press, Inc | year = 1997 | isbn = 978-0-19-508116-9|pages=257–58}} It is closely related to other Polynesian languages, such as Marquesan, Tahitian, Māori, Rapa Nui (the language of Easter Island), and less closely to Samoan and Tongan.{{cite book |last=Schütz |first=Albert J. |title=The voices of Eden: a history of Hawaiian language studies |publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press |location=Honolulu, HI |date=1994 |isbn=0-585-28415-6 |oclc=45733324}}

According to Schütz, the Marquesans colonized the archipelago in roughly 300 CE{{cite book |last=Schütz |first=Albert J. |title=The Voices of Eden: A History of Hawaiian Language Studies |publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press |location=Honolulu, HI |year=1994 |pages=334–36; 338 20n |isbn=978-0-8248-1637-7}} and were later followed by waves of seafarers from the Society Islands, Samoa and Tonga.{{cite web |url=https://study.com/academy/lesson/hawaiian-language-history-phrases.html |title=Hawaiian Language: History & Phrases |access-date=May 19, 2021 |website=study.com}} These Polynesians remained in the islands; they eventually became the Hawaiian people and their languages evolved into the Hawaiian language.{{cite book |last1=Elbert |first1=Samuel H. |author1-link=Samuel Hoyt Elbert |first2=Mary Kawena |last2=Pukui |author2-link=Mary Kawena Pukui |title=Hawaiian Grammar |publisher=The University Press of Hawaii |location=Honolulu, HI |year=1979 |pages=35–36 |isbn=0-8248-0494-5}} Kimura and Wilson say: "[l]inguists agree that Hawaiian is closely related to Eastern Polynesian, with a particularly strong link in the Southern Marquesas, and a secondary link in Tahiti, which may be explained by voyaging between the Hawaiian and Society Islands".{{cite book |last1=Kimura |first1=Larry |last2=Pila |first2=Wilson |chapter=Native Hawaiian Culture |title=Native Hawaiian Study Commission Minority Report |publisher=United States Department of Interior |location=Washington, D.C. |year=1983 |pages=173–203 [185]}}

Before the arrival of Captain James Cook, the Hawaiian language had no written form. That form was developed mainly by American Protestant missionaries between 1820 and 1826 who assigned to the Hawaiian phonemes letters from the Latin alphabet. Interest in Hawaiian increased significantly in the late 20th century. With the help of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, specially designated immersion schools in which all subjects would be taught in Hawaiian were established. The University of Hawaiʻi developed a Hawaiian-language graduate studies program. Municipal codes were altered to favor Hawaiian place and street names for new civic developments.{{cite web |url=https://www.honolulumagazine.com/how-honolulu-gets-its-street-names-and-neighborhood-themes/ |title=How Honolulu Gets Its Street Names and Neighborhood Themes |magazine=Honolulu |date=4 September 2018 |access-date=26 June 2022}}

Hawaiian distinguishes between long and short vowel sounds. In modern practice, vowel length is indicated with a macron (kahakō). Hawaiian-language newspapers (nūpepa) published from 1834 to 1948 and traditional native speakers of Hawaiian generally omit the marks in their own writing. The ʻokina and kahakō are intended to capture the proper pronunciation of Hawaiian words.{{cite web |url=http://www2.hawaii.edu/~strauch/tips/HawaiianOrthography.html |title=Using Correct Hawaiian Orthography |date=15 August 2012 |access-date=26 June 2022}} The Hawaiian language uses the glottal stop (ʻOkina) as a consonant. It is written as a symbol similar to the apostrophe or left-hanging (opening) single quotation mark.{{cite web |url=https://www.iolanipalace.org/information/hawaiian-language/ |title=Use of the Written Hawaiian Language |publisher=Iolani Palace |access-date=26 June 2022}}

The keyboard layout used for Hawaiian is QWERTY.{{cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/cldr/charts/dev/keyboards/layouts/haw.html|title=Layouts: Hawaiian (haw)|website=unicode.org|access-date=January 5, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525013041/http://www.unicode.org/cldr/charts/dev/keyboards/layouts/haw.html|archive-date=May 25, 2017|url-status=live}}

{{main|Hawaiian Pidgin}}

File:Hermann A. Widemann and family, ca. 1850s.jpgHawaiian Pidgin, officially known as Hawaiʻi Creole English (HCE), is a creole language that emerged in Hawaiʻi during the 19th century as a means of communication among diverse groups working on sugarcane plantations.{{Cite web |title=Hawaiian Pidgin History |url=https://www.dapidgin.com/history/ |access-date=2025-03-29 |website=www.dapidgin.com}} Its lexicon is primarily derived from English, with significant contributions from Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Ilocano, and Tagalog.

The development of Hawaiian Pidgin began with Pidgin Hawaiian, an earlier pidgin that formed in the 1790s during initial contact between Native Hawaiians and foreigners. As plantation laborers from various countries arrived, a new pidgin based on English evolved to facilitate communication among workers and supervisors.{{Cite web |title=APiCS Online - Survey chapter: Pidgin Hawaiian |url=https://apics-online.info/surveys/71 |access-date=2025-03-29 |website=apics-online.info}}

By the early 20th century, children of these plantation workers began acquiring Hawaiian Pidgin as their first language, leading to its creolization. This transition marked the emergence of HCE as a fully developed creole language.{{cite web |title=Hawai{{okina}}i Creole English |url=https://www.hawaii.edu/satocenter/langnet/definitions/hce.html |access-date=May 19, 2021 |website=www.hawaii.edu}}

HCE incorporates Hawaiian words, especially in place names and terms for local flora and fauna. For instance, the Hawaiian term for tuna, "ahi," is commonly used in HCE. Additionally, certain English words have adapted meanings; "aunty" and "uncle" are used to address any respected elder, regardless of familial relation.{{cite web |last=Sood |first=Suemedha |date=April 20, 2012 |title=Surfer lingo, explained |url=http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20120418-travelwise-surfer-lingo-explained |access-date=December 9, 2020 |publisher=BBC}}{{Cite web |date=2024-11-18 |title=Know Before You Go: Pidgin and Hawaiian Language Slang |url=https://www.suite-paradise.com/blog/local-scoop/common-hawaiian-and-pidgin-slang |access-date=2025-03-29 |website=Suite Paradise |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Pidgin English in Hawaii {{!}} Hawaii Life Vacations |url=https://vacations.hawaiilife.com/blog/hawaii/eh-brah-hawaiian-pidgin-english |access-date=2025-03-29 |website=vacations.hawaiilife.com}}

Some expressions from HCE have permeated other communities, particularly through surfing culture. Terms like "brah" (brother) and "da kine" (a versatile placeholder term) have gained recognition beyond Hawaiʻi.

In 2015, the U.S. Census Bureau recognized Hawaiian Pidgin as an official language in Hawaiʻi, reflecting its widespread use among residents. Despite this recognition, debates continue about its role in education and its impact on learning Standard English.{{Cite web |title=Wayback Machine |url=https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/25a8f799-25da-4f99-985e-3e7ec71118cf/content |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240709083050/https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/25a8f799-25da-4f99-985e-3e7ec71118cf/content |archive-date=2024-07-09 |access-date=2025-03-29 |website=scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu}}

Hawaiʻi Sign Language, a sign language for the Deaf based on the Hawaiian language, has been in use in the islands since the early 1800s. It is dwindling in numbers due to American Sign Language supplanting HSL through schooling and various other domains.{{cite web |last=Chin |first=Corinne |title=The fight to save Hawaii Sign Language from extinction |url=https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/08/americas/hawaii-sign-language-extinction-as-equals-intl-cmd/index.html |publisher=CNN |access-date=April 23, 2022}}

{{main|Hawaiian religion}}

{{see also|Kapu (Hawaiian culture)|List of figures in the Hawaiian religion|List of missionaries to Hawaii}}

File:Perspective view of northwest elevation - Makiki Christian Church, 829 Pensacola Street, Honolulu, Honolulu County, HI HABS HI-533-1 (cropped).tif.]]

{{Pie chart

| thumb = right

| caption = Religious self-identification, per Public Religion Research Institute's 2022 American Values Survey{{Cite web |last=Staff |date=February 24, 2023 |title=PRRI – American Values Atlas: Religious Tradition in Hawaii|url=https://ava.prri.org/#religious/2022/States/religion/m/US-HI|access-date=2023-04-03 |website=Public Religion Research Institute}}

| label1 = Protestantism

| value1 = 42

| color1 = Blue

| label2 = Catholicism

| value2 = 13

| color2 = Purple

| label3 = Mormonism

| value3 = 1

| color3 = DeepSkyBlue

| label4 = Unaffiliated

| value4 = 37

| color4 = White

| label5 = Buddhism

| value5 = 4

| color5 = Gold

| label6 = Other

| value6 = 3

| color6 = Black

}}

{{Pie chart

| thumb = right

| caption = Religion in Hawaii (2014)

| label1 = Protestantism

| value1 = 38

| color1 = DodgerBlue

| label2 = Catholicism

| value2 = 20

| color2 = #d4213d

| label3 = Mormonism

| value3 = 3

| color3 = DeepSkyBlue

| label4 = Jehovah's Witnesses

| value4 = 1

| color4 = Aquamarine

| label5 = Other Christian

| value5 = 1

| color5 = Pink

| label6 = No religion

| value6 = 26

| color6 = Honeydew

| label7 = Buddhism

| value7 = 8

| color7 = Gold

| label8 = Other religion

| value8 = 2

| color8 = Chartreuse

| label9 = Don't know

| value9 = 1

| color9 = Black

}}

Hawaii is among the most religiously diverse states in the U.S., with one in ten residents practicing a non-Christian faith.{{cite web|last=|first=|last2=|first2=|last3=|first3=|title=Religion in America: U.S. Religious Data, Demographics and Statistics|url=https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/|access-date=July 19, 2021|website=Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project|language=en-US}} Roughly one-quarter to half the population identify as unaffiliated and nonreligious, making Hawaii one of the most secular states as well.

Christianity remains the majority religion, represented mainly by various Protestant groups and Catholicism. The second-largest religion is Buddhism, which comprises a larger proportion of the population than in any other state; it is concentrated in the Japanese community. Native Hawaiians continue to engage in traditional religious and spiritual practices today, often adhering to Christian and traditional beliefs at the same time.

The Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew in Honolulu was formally the seat of the Hawaiian Reformed Catholic Church, a province of the Anglican Communion that had been the state church of the Kingdom of Hawaii; it subsequently merged into the Episcopal Church in the 1890s following the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, becoming the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii. The Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace and the Co-Cathedral of Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus serve as seats of the Diocese of Honolulu. The Eastern Orthodox community is centered around the Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Pacific.

The largest religious denominations by membership were the Catholic Church with 249,619 adherents in 2010;{{cite web |url=http://www.thearda.com/rcms2010/r/s/15/rcms2010_15_state_adh_2010.asp |title=The Association of Religion Data Archives | State Membership Report |publisher=www.thearda.com |access-date=November 12, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131112160810/http://www.thearda.com/rcms2010/r/s/15/rcms2010_15_state_adh_2010.asp |archive-date=November 12, 2013 |url-status=live}} the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with 68,128 adherents in 2009;{{Cite web |url=https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/facts-and-statistics/state/hawaii |title=Facts and Statistics |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200523085659/https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/facts-and-statistics/state/hawaii |archive-date=May 23, 2020 |work=Church News |date=2020 |access-date=March 30, 2020}} the United Church of Christ with 115 congregations and 20,000 members; and the Southern Baptist Convention with 108 congregations and 18,000 members.{{cite web |title=The Association of Religion Data Archives—Maps & Reports |url=http://www.thearda.com/rcms2010/r/s/15/rcms2010_15_state_name_2010.asp |url-status=live |access-date=April 20, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140421163629/http://www.thearda.com/rcms2010/r/s/15/rcms2010_15_state_name_2010.asp |archive-date=April 21, 2014}} Nondenominational churches collectively have 128 congregations and 32,000 members.

According to data provided by religious establishments, religion in Hawaii in 2000 was distributed as follows:{{cite web |url=http://www.hawaii.gov/dbedt/info/economic/databook/db2000 |title=State of Hawaii Data Book 2000, Section 1 Population, Table 1.47 |publisher=Hawaii.gov |access-date=November 5, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111020193420/http://hawaii.gov/dbedt/info/economic/databook/db2000 |archive-date=October 20, 2011 |url-status=live}}{{cite news |url=http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2002/Sep/21/il/il11afaith.html |title=Survey shows partial picture |newspaper=The Honolulu Advertiser |date=September 21, 2002 |access-date=November 5, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111009103414/http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2002/Sep/21/il/il11afaith.html |archive-date=October 9, 2011 |url-status=live}}

{{div col|colwidth=18em}}

• Christianity: 351,000 (29%)
• Buddhism: 110,000 (9%)
• Judaism: 10,000 (1%){{cite web|author=Bernard Katz|title=The Jewish Community of Maui, Hawaii|website=Museum of the Jewish People – Beit Hatfutsot|url=https://www.bh.org.il/jewish-community-maui-hawaii/|access-date=March 14, 2020|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180101095528/https://www.bh.org.il/jewish-community-maui-hawaii/|archive-date=January 1, 2018}}
• Other: 100,000 (10%)
• Unaffiliated: 650,000 (51%)

{{div col end}}

{{notelist-ua}}

However, a Pew poll found that the religious composition was as follows:

Note: Births in this table do not add up, because Hispanic peoples are counted both by their ethnicity and by their race, giving a higher overall number.

:1) Until 2016, data for births of Asian origin, included also births of the Pacific Islander group.

:2) Since 2016, data for births of White Hispanic origin are not collected, but included in one Hispanic group; persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race.

Hawaii has had a long history of LGBTQIA+ identities. {{Lang|haw|Māhū}} ("in the middle") were a precolonial third gender with traditional spiritual and social roles, widely respected as healers. Homosexual relationships known as aikāne were widespread and normal in ancient Hawaiian society.{{cite book|author=Stephen O. Murray|title=Homosexualities|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GfH6Nc8HHFwC&pg=PA99|date=June 1, 2002|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-55195-1|pages=99–|access-date=May 22, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140627132241/http://books.google.com/books?id=GfH6Nc8HHFwC&pg=PA99|archive-date=June 27, 2014|url-status=live}}{{cite book|author=William Kornblum|title=Sociology in a Changing World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DtKcG6qoY5AC&pg=PT189|date=January 31, 2011|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=978-1-111-30157-6|page=165|access-date=May 22, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140627123651/http://books.google.com/books?id=DtKcG6qoY5AC&pg=PT189|archive-date=June 27, 2014|url-status=live}}{{cite book|author=Michael Klarman|title=From the Closet to the Altar: Courts, Backlash, and the Struggle for Same-Sex Marriage|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e8by2JjCqaEC&pg=PA56|date=October 18, 2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-992210-9|pages=56–|access-date=May 22, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140627123631/http://books.google.com/books?id=e8by2JjCqaEC&pg=PA56|archive-date=June 27, 2014|url-status=live}} Among men, aikāne relationships often began as teens and continued throughout their adult lives, even if they also maintained heterosexual partners.{{cite book|author1=Carol R. Ember|author2=Melvin Ember|title=Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender: Men and Women in the World's Cultures Topics and Cultures A–K—Volume 1; Cultures L–Z |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XUAsskBg8ywC&pg=PA207|date=December 31, 2003|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-0-306-47770-6|pages=207–|access-date=May 22, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160515091537/https://books.google.com/books?id=XUAsskBg8ywC&pg=PA207|archive-date=May 15, 2016|url-status=live}} While aikāne usually refers to male homosexuality, some stories also refer to women, implying that women may have been involved in aikāne relationships as well.{{cite book|author=Bonnie Zimmerman|title=Lesbian Histories and Cultures: An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0EUoCrFolGcC&pg=PA358|year=2000|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-8153-1920-7|pages=358–|access-date=May 22, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161223205251/https://books.google.com/books?id=0EUoCrFolGcC&pg=PA358|archive-date=December 23, 2016|url-status=live}} Journals written by Captain Cook's crew record that many aliʻi (hereditary nobles) also engaged in aikāne relationships, and Kamehameha the Great, the founder and first ruler of the Kingdom of Hawaii, was also known to participate. Cook's second lieutenant and co-astronomer James King observed that "all the chiefs had them", and recounts that Cook was actually asked by one chief to leave King behind, considering the role a great honor.

Hawaiian scholar Lilikalā Kameʻeleihiwa notes that aikāne served a practical purpose of building mutual trust and cohesion; "If you didn't sleep with a man, how could you trust him when you went into battle? How would you know if he was going to be the warrior that would protect you at all costs, if he wasn't your lover?"{{cite AV media |people= Xian, Kathryn and Brent Anbe (Directors)|year= 2001|title= Ke Kūlana He Māhū: Remembering a Sense of Place|medium= DVD}}

As Western colonial influences intensified in the late 19th and early 20th century, the word aikāne was expurgated of its original sexual meaning, and in print simply meant "friend". Nonetheless, in Hawaiian language publications its metaphorical meaning can still mean either "friend" or "lover" without stigmatization.{{cite book|author=Noenoe K. Silva|title=Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G3IFQ2YAsXgC|date=2004|publisher=Duke University Press Durham & London|pages=66, 77|isbn=0-8223-8622-4|access-date=June 7, 2019|archive-date=September 21, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200921094011/https://books.google.com/books?id=G3IFQ2YAsXgC&printsec=frontcover&hl=en|url-status=live}}

A 2012 Gallup poll found that Hawaii had the largest proportion of LGBTQIA+ adults in the U.S., at 5.1%, an estimated 53,966 individuals. The number of same-sex couple households in 2010 was 3,239, representing a 35.5% increase from a decade earlier.{{cite web |url=http://www.gallup.com/poll/160517/lgbt-percentage-highest-lowest-north-dakota.aspx |title=LGBT Percentage Highest in D.C., Lowest in North Dakota |date=February 15, 2013 |author1=Gates, Gary J. |author2=Newport, Frank |publisher=Gallup, Inc. |access-date=May 9, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140621150848/http://www.gallup.com/poll/160517/lgbt-percentage-highest-lowest-north-dakota.aspx |archive-date=June 21, 2014 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=http://www.gallup.com/poll/182837/estimated-780-000-americans-sex-marriages.aspx |title=An Estimated 780,000 Americans in Same-Sex Marriages |author1=Gates, Gary J. |author2=Newport, Frank |date=April 24, 2015 |access-date=May 9, 2015 |publisher=Gallup, Inc. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150429162023/http://www.gallup.com/poll/182837/estimated-780-000-americans-sex-marriages.aspx |archive-date=April 29, 2015 |url-status=live }} In 2013, Hawaii became the fifteenth U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage; this reportedly boosted tourism by $217{{spaces}}million.{{cite news|title=Hawaii Senate passes gay marriage bill|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/12/hawaii-gay-marriage/3510441/|newspaper=USA Today|date=November 13, 2013|access-date=August 22, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170710204833/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/12/hawaii-gay-marriage/3510441/|archive-date=July 10, 2017|url-status=live}}

{{See also|Agriculture in Hawaii|Sugar plantations in Hawaii|Big Five (Hawaii)|Plantation economy}}

File:Pineapple field near Honolulu, Hawaii, 1907 (CHS-418).jpg

File:'Two Surfer Girls' by William Fulton Soare, oil on canvas, c. 1935.JPG

File:US Navy 111218-N-RI884-097 The U.S. Pacific Fleet Marching Band participates in a parade through downtown Waikiki honoring Japanese-American vetera.jpg

The history of Hawaii's economy can be traced through a succession of dominant industries: sandalwood,{{cite web|url=http://www.hawaiihistory.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ig.page&PageID=274 |title=Hawaii sandalwood trade |publisher=Hawaiihistory.org |access-date=November 5, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005214518/http://www.hawaiihistory.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ig.page&PageID=274 |archive-date=October 5, 2011}} whaling,{{cite web |url=http://www.hawaiihistory.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ig.page&PageID=287 |title=Whaling in Hawaii |publisher=Hawaiihistory.org |date=June 16, 1999 |access-date=November 5, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005214600/http://www.hawaiihistory.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ig.page&PageID=287 |archive-date=October 5, 2011 }} sugarcane, pineapple, the military, tourism and education. By the 1840s, sugar plantations had gained a strong foothold in the Hawaiian economy, due to a high demand of sugar in the United States and rapid transport via steamships. Sugarcane plantations were tightly controlled by American missionary families and businessmen known as "the Big Five", who monopolized control of the sugar industry's profits. By the time Hawaiian annexation was being considered in 1898, sugarcane producers turned to cultivating tropical fruits like pineapple, which became the principal export for Hawaiʻi's plantation economy. Since statehood in 1959, tourism has been the largest industry, contributing 24.3% of the gross state product (GSP) in 1997, despite efforts to diversify. The state's gross output for 2003 was {{US$|47}}{{spaces}}billion; per capita income for Hawaii residents in 2014 was {{US$|54,516}}.{{cite web |url=https://data.hawaii.gov/Economic-Development/Per-capita-GDP-by-Year/qnar-gix3/data |title=Per capita GDF by year |publisher=State of Hawaii |access-date=August 25, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160911221546/https://data.hawaii.gov/Economic-Development/Per-capita-GDP-by-Year/qnar-gix3/data |archive-date=September 11, 2016 |url-status=live}} Hawaiian exports include food and clothing. These industries play a small role in the Hawaiian economy, due to the shipping distance to viable markets, such as the West Coast of the United States. The state's food exports include coffee, macadamia nuts, pineapple, livestock, sugarcane and honey.{{cite web |url=http://www.hawaiibeekeepers.org/history.php |title=A History of Honey Bees in the Hawaiian Islands |access-date=December 15, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100908102027/http://www.hawaiibeekeepers.org/history.php |archive-date=September 8, 2010 |url-status=dead}}

By weight, honey bees may be the state's most valuable export.{{cite web |url=http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/apr/23/hawaii-honeybees-vie-for-most-valuable-export/ |title=Hawaii honeybees vie for most valuable export |access-date=December 15, 2011 |archive-date=March 14, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180314184307/http://www.vcstar.com/errors/404/ |url-status=live}} According to the Hawaii Agricultural Statistics Service, agricultural sales were {{US$|370.9}}{{spaces}}million from diversified agriculture, {{US$|100.6}}{{spaces}}million from pineapple, and {{US$|64.3}}{{spaces}}million from sugarcane. Hawaii's relatively consistent climate has attracted the seed industry, which is able to test three generations of crops per year on the islands, compared with one or two on the mainland.{{cite news |url=https://klewtv.com/news/nation-world/hawaiian-corn-is-genetically-engineered-crop-flash-point-11-19-2015 |title=Hawaii is genetically engineered crop flash point |date=April 19, 2014 |website=KLEW_TV |agency=Associated Press |access-date=April 18, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191112105619/https://klewtv.com/news/nation-world/hawaiian-corn-is-genetically-engineered-crop-flash-point-11-19-2015 |archive-date=November 12, 2019 |url-status=live}} Seeds yielded {{US$|264}} million in 2012, supporting 1,400 workers.{{cite news |last=Pollack |first=Andrew |title=Unease in Hawaii's Cornfields |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/08/business/fight-over-genetically-altered-crops-flares-in-hawaii.html |url-status=live |work=The New York Times |date=October 7, 2013 |access-date=October 18, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140831190727/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/08/business/fight-over-genetically-altered-crops-flares-in-hawaii.html |archive-date=August 31, 2014}}

{{as of|2015|December}}, the state's unemployment rate was 3.2%.{{cite web|title=Local Area Unemployment Statistics|url=http://www.bls.gov/lau/|website=www.bls.gov|publisher=US Bureau of Labor Statistics|access-date=February 25, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725005015/https://www.bls.gov/lau/|archive-date=July 25, 2018|url-status=live}} In 2009, the United States military spent {{US$|12.2}}{{spaces}}billion in Hawaii, accounting for 18% of spending in the state for that year. 75,000 United States Department of Defense personnel live in Hawaii.{{cite news |agency=Associated Press |url=http://www.navytimes.com/news/2011/06/ap-military-spending-strong-in-hawaii-060111/ |title=Study: Military spent $12B in Hawaii in 2009 |work=Military Times |date=June 1, 2011 |access-date=June 1, 2011 |archive-date=September 4, 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120904070338/http://www.navytimes.com/news/2011/06/ap-military-spending-strong-in-hawaii-060111/ |url-status=live}} According to a 2013 study by Phoenix Marketing International, Hawaii at that time had the fourth-largest number of millionaires per capita in the United States, with a ratio of 7.2%.{{cite web |last=Frank |first=Robert |title=Top states for millionaires per capita |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2014/01/15/top-states-for-millionaires-per-capita.html |url-status=live |publisher=CNBC |date=January 15, 2014 |access-date=January 22, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140122061516/http://www.cnbc.com/id/101338309 |archive-date=January 22, 2014}}

Tax is collected by the Hawaii Department of Taxation.{{cite web|url=https://tax.hawaii.gov/|title=Department of Taxation|website=tax.hawaii.gov|access-date=January 3, 2020|archive-date=December 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191231151648/https://tax.hawaii.gov/|url-status=live}} Most government revenue comes from personal income taxes and a general excise tax (GET) levied primarily on businesses; there is no statewide tax on sales,{{cite web|title=General Information {{!}} Department of Taxation|url=https://tax.hawaii.gov/geninfo/|access-date=July 19, 2021|language=en-US}} personal property, or stock transfers,{{Cite web|title=11 Reasons to do Business in Hawaii|url=https://invest.hawaii.gov/business/why-invest-in-hawaii/11-reasons-to-do-business-in-hawaii/|access-date=July 19, 2021|website=invest.hawaii.gov}} while the effective property tax rate is among the lowest in the country.{{cite web|title=Hawaii Tax Rates & Rankings {{!}} Hawaii State Taxes|url=https://taxfoundation.org/state/hawaii/|access-date=July 19, 2021|website=Tax Foundation|language=en-US}} The high rate of tourism means that millions of visitors generate public revenue through GET and the hotel room tax. However, Hawaii residents generally pay among the most state taxes per person in the U.S.{{cite web |url=http://starbulletin.com/2004/05/21/news/story1.html |title=Honolulu Star-Bulletin Hawaii News |publisher=Starbulletin.com |date=November 30, 2006 |access-date=November 5, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080919004110/http://starbulletin.com/2004/05/21/news/story1.html |archive-date=September 19, 2008 |url-status=live}}

The Tax Foundation of Hawaii considers the state's tax burden too high, claiming that it contributes to higher prices and the perception of an unfriendly business climate. The nonprofit Tax Foundation ranks Hawaii third in income tax burden and second in its overall tax burden, though notes that a significant portion of taxes are borne by tourists.{{Cite web|title=State-Local Tax Burden Rankings|url=https://taxfoundation.org/publications/state-local-tax-burden-rankings/|access-date=July 19, 2021|website=Tax Foundation|language=en-US}} Former State Senator Sam Slom attributed Hawaii's comparatively high tax rate to the fact that the state government is responsible for education, health care, and social services that are usually handled at a county or municipal level in most other states.

The cost of living in Hawaii, specifically Honolulu, is high compared to that of most major U.S. cities, although it is 6.7% lower than in New York City and 3.6% lower than in San Francisco.{{cite news |url=http://salary.nytimes.com/costoflivingwizard/layoutscripts/coll_start.asp |title=Cost of Living Wizard |work=The New York Times |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080914100326/http://salary.nytimes.com/CostOfLivingWizard/layoutscripts/coll_start.asp |archive-date=September 14, 2008 }} These numbers may not take into account some costs, such as increased travel costs for flights, additional shipping fees, and the loss of promotional participation opportunities for customers outside the contiguous U.S. While some online stores offer free shipping on orders to Hawaii, many merchants exclude Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico and certain other U.S. territories.{{Cite web|url=https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=202052360|title=Amazon.com Help: About Shipping to Alaska, Hawaii, & Puerto Rico Addresses|website=www.amazon.com|access-date=June 18, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181214002438/https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=202052360|archive-date=December 14, 2018|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.aimforawesome.com/moving-to-hawaii/no-free-shipping-to-hawaii/|title=(No) free shipping to Hawaii—Living in Hawaii—Moving to Oahu, Maui, Kauai, Big Island|website=www.aimforawesome.com|access-date=June 18, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180618102423/https://www.aimforawesome.com/moving-to-hawaii/no-free-shipping-to-hawaii/|archive-date=June 18, 2018|url-status=live}}

File:Hawaii electricity production by type.webp

File:Electricity prices by metro area.webp

Hawaiian Electric Industries, a privately owned company, provides 95% of the state's population with electricity, mostly from fossil-fuel power stations. Average electricity prices in October 2014 ({{convert|36.41|¢/kWh|¢/kWh|abbr=off|disp=out}}) were nearly three times the national average ({{convert|12.58|¢/kWh|¢/kWh|abbr=off|disp=out}}) and 80% higher than the second-highest state, Connecticut.{{cite news|last1=Chesto|first1=Jon|title=House bill aims to address state's power shortfall|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/01/29/house-bill-aims-address-state-power-shortfall/wrlx8fjkjzLF85wDhsf6KJ/story.html|issue=February 8, 2015|newspaper=The Boston Globe|date=January 29, 2015|access-date=June 21, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170629053521/http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/01/29/house-bill-aims-address-state-power-shortfall/wrlx8fjkjzLF85wDhsf6KJ/story.html|archive-date=June 29, 2017|url-status=live}}

File:Median housing prices by State.webp

The median home value in Hawaii in the 2000 U.S. Census was {{US$|272,700}}, while the national median home value was {{US$|119,600}}. Hawaii home values were the highest of all states, including California with a median home value of {{US$|211,500}}.{{cite web |url=https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/census/historic/values.html |title=Historic Housing Values |website=www.census.gov |access-date=December 9, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171029205137/https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/census/historic/values.html |archive-date=October 29, 2017 |url-status=live }} Research from the National Association of Realtors places the 2010 median sale price of a single family home in Honolulu, Hawaii, at {{US$|607,600}} and the U.S. median sales price at {{US$|173,200}}. The sale price of single family homes in Hawaii was the highest of any U.S. city in 2010, just above that of the Silicon Valley area of California ({{US$|602,000}}).{{cite web |url=http://www.realtor.org/research/research/metroprice |title=Metropolitan Median Prices |publisher=Realtor.org |date=February 15, 2005 |access-date=November 5, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111103194245/http://www.realtor.org/research/research/metroprice |archive-date=November 3, 2011 |url-status=live }}

Hawaii's very high cost of living is the result of several interwoven factors of the global economy in addition to domestic U.S. government trade policy. Like other regions with desirable weather year-round, such as California, Arizona and Florida, Hawaii's residents can be considered to be subject to a "sunshine tax". This situation is further exacerbated by the natural factors of geography and world distribution that lead to higher prices for goods due to increased shipping costs, a problem which many island states and territories suffer from as well.

The higher costs to ship goods across an ocean may be further increased by the requirements of the Jones Act, which generally requires that goods be transported between places within the U.S., including between the mainland U.S. west coast and Hawaii, using only U.S.-owned, built, and crewed ships. Jones Act-compliant vessels are often more expensive to build and operate than foreign equivalents, which can drive up shipping costs. While the Jones Act does not affect transportation of goods to Hawaii directly from Asia, this type of trade is nonetheless not common; this is a result of other primarily economic reasons including additional costs associated with stopping over in Hawaii (e.g. pilot and port fees), the market size of Hawaii, and the economics of using ever-larger ships that cannot be handled in Hawaii for transoceanic voyages. Therefore, Hawaii relies on receiving most inbound goods on Jones Act-qualified vessels originating from the U.S. west coast, which may contribute to the increased cost of some consumer goods and therefore the overall cost of living.{{cite web |url=http://www.hawaiibusiness.com/Hawaii-Business/August-2012/The-pros-and-cons-of-the-Jones-Act/ |title=Keeping up with the Jones Act |date=August 2012 |website=Hawaii Business |publisher=PacificBasin Communications |location=Honolulu, HI |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120823083544/http://www.hawaiibusiness.com/Hawaii-Business/August-2012/The-pros-and-cons-of-the-Jones-Act/ |archive-date=August 23, 2012 |url-status=live|access-date=March 14, 2014}}{{cite web|url=http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/ID/10736/Jones-Act-Does-Not-Bar-International-Trade-From-Hawaii.aspx|title=Jones Act Does Not Bar International Trade From Hawaii|last=Hansen|first=Michael|date=October 3, 2013|publisher=Hawaiʻi Free Press|location=Honolulu, HI |access-date=July 28, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180728040004/http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/ID/10736/Jones-Act-Does-Not-Bar-International-Trade-From-Hawaii.aspx|archive-date=July 28, 2018|url-status=live}} Critics of the Jones Act contend that Hawaii consumers ultimately bear the expense of transporting goods imposed by the Jones Act.{{cite news |url=http://archives.starbulletin.com/97/04/08/business/story3.html |title=U.S.-only shipping rule praised, blasted; Backers and foes of the Jones Act make their case before the Legislature |first=Russ |last=Lynch |newspaper=Honolulu Star-Bulletin |date=April 4, 1997 |location=Honolulu, HI |publisher=Black Press Group Ltd |issn=0439-5271 |id={{OCLC|9188300|433678262|232117605|2268098}} |access-date=May 5, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121013185712/http://archives.starbulletin.com/97/04/08/business/story3.html |archive-date=October 13, 2012 |url-status=live}}

{{Main|Culture of the Native Hawaiians}}

The aboriginal culture of Hawaii is Polynesian. Hawaii represents the northernmost extension of the vast Polynesian Triangle of the south and central Pacific Ocean. While traditional Hawaiian culture remains as vestiges in modern Hawaiian society, there are re-enactments of the ceremonies and traditions throughout the islands. Some of these cultural influences, including the popularity (in greatly modified form) of lū{{okina}}au and hula, are strong enough to affect the wider United States.

{{Main|Cuisine of Hawaii}}

File:Man with a Yoke Carrying Taro by Joseph Strong, oil on canvas board, 1880, Honolulu Museum of Art, accession 12692.1.JPG, or in Hawaiian kalo, was one of the primary staples in Ancient Hawaii and remains a central ingredient in Hawaiian gastronomy today.]]

The cuisine of Hawaii is a fusion of many foods brought by immigrants to the Hawaiian Islands, including the earliest Polynesians and Native Hawaiian cuisine, and American, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Polynesian, Puerto Rican, and Portuguese origins. Plant and animal food sources are imported from around the world for agricultural use in Hawaii. Poi, a starch made by pounding taro, is one of the traditional foods of the islands. Many local restaurants serve the ubiquitous plate lunch, which features two scoops of rice, a simplified version of American macaroni salad and a variety of toppings including hamburger patties, a fried egg, and gravy of a loco moco, Japanese style tonkatsu or the traditional lū{{okina}}au favorites, including kālua pork and laulau. Spam musubi is an example of the fusion of ethnic cuisine that developed on the islands among the mix of immigrant groups and military personnel. In the 1990s, a group of chefs developed Hawaii regional cuisine as a contemporary fusion cuisine.

{{Main|Customs and etiquette in Hawaii}}

Some key customs and etiquette in Hawaii are as follows: when visiting a home, it is considered good manners to bring a small gift for one's host (for example, a dessert). Thus, parties are usually in the form of potlucks. Most locals take their shoes off before entering a home. It is customary for Hawaiian families, regardless of ethnicity, to hold a luau to celebrate a child's first birthday. It is also customary at Hawaiian weddings, especially at Filipino weddings, for the bride and groom to do a money dance (also called the pandanggo). Print media and local residents recommend that one refer to residents of Hawaii who are not ethnically Hawaiian as "locals of Hawaii" or "people of Hawaii".

{{Main|Hawaiian mythology}}

File:Ethnologisches Museum Dahlem Berlin Mai 2006 009.jpg museum]]

Hawaiian mythology includes the legends, historical tales, and sayings of the ancient Hawaiian people. It is considered a variant of a more general Polynesian mythology that developed a unique character for several centuries before {{circa|1800}}. It is associated with the Hawaiian religion, which was officially suppressed in the 19th century but was kept alive by some practitioners to the modern day.{{cite web |url=https://www.civilbeat.org/2021/06/peter-apo-how-a-violent-battle-in-1819-still-impacts-hawaii-today/ |title=Peter Apo: How A Violent Battle In 1819 Still Impacts Hawaii Today |publisher=Honolulu Civil Beat |date=27 June 2021 |access-date=26 June 2022}} Prominent figures and terms include Aumakua, the spirit of an ancestor or family god and Kāne, the highest of the four major Hawaiian deities.{{citation needed|date=May 2015}}

{{Main|Polynesian mythology}}

File:Tahiti-Oro.jpg, made of woven dried coconut fibre (sennit), made to protect a Polynesian god effigy (to'o), carved from wood]]

Polynesian mythology is the oral traditions of the people of Polynesia, a grouping of Central and South Pacific Ocean island archipelagos in the Polynesian triangle together with the scattered cultures known as the Polynesian outliers. Polynesians speak languages that descend from a language reconstructed as Proto-Polynesian that was probably spoken in the area around Tonga and Samoa in around 1000 BC.{{cite book |last=Kirch |first=Patrick Vinton |url=https://archive.org/details/hawaikiancestral0000kirc/page/99/mode/2up |title=Hawaiki, Ancestral Polynesia: An Essay in Historical Anthropology |author2=Roger Green |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-521-78309-5 |pages=99–119 |url-access=registration}}

Prior to the 15th century, Polynesian people migrated east to the Cook Islands, and from there to other island groups such as Tahiti and the Marquesas. Their descendants later discovered the islands Tahiti, Rapa Nui, and later the Hawaiian Islands and New Zealand.{{cite journal|last=Wilmshurst|first=Janet|author-link=Janet Wilmshurst|date=December 27, 2010|title=High-precision radiocarbon dating shows recent and rapid initial human colonization of East Polynesia|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America|publisher=US National Library of Medicine|volume=108|issue=5|pages=1815–1820|doi=10.1073/pnas.1015876108|pmc=3033267|pmid=21187404|bibcode=2011PNAS..108.1815W |doi-access=free}}

The Polynesian languages are part of the Austronesian language family. Many are close enough in terms of vocabulary and grammar to be mutually intelligible. There are also substantial cultural similarities between the various groups, especially in terms of social organization, childrearing, horticulture, building and textile technologies. Their mythologies in particular demonstrate local reworkings of commonly shared tales. The Polynesian cultures each have distinct but related oral traditions; legends or myths are traditionally considered to recount ancient history (the time of "pō") and the adventures of gods ("atua") and deified ancestors.{{citation needed|date=May 2015}}

{{Main|List of Hawaiian state parks}}

There are many Hawaiian state parks.

• The Island of Hawai{{okina}}i has state parks, recreation areas, and historical parks.
• Kaua{{okina}}i has the Ahukini State Recreation Pier, six state parks, and the Russian Fort Elizabeth State Historical Park.
• Maui has two state monuments, several state parks, and the Polipoli Spring State Recreation Area. Moloka'i has the Pala'au State Park.
• O{{okina}}ahu has several state parks, a number of state recreation areas, and a number of monuments, including the Ulu Pō Heiau State Monument.

{{Main|Literature in Hawaii}}

The literature of Hawaii is diverse and includes authors Kiana Davenport, Lois-Ann Yamanaka, and Kaui Hart Hemmings. Hawaiian magazines include Hana Hou!, Hawaii Business and Honolulu, among others.

{{Main|Music of Hawaii}}

File:3 ukes.jpgs, widely used in Hawaiian music]]

File:Bonnaroo08 jackjohnson2 lg.jpg, a folk rock musician, was born and raised on Oahu's North Shore.]]

The music of Hawaii includes traditional and popular styles, ranging from native Hawaiian folk music to modern rock and hip hop.

Styles such as slack-key guitar are well known worldwide, while Hawaiian-tinged music is a frequent part of Hollywood soundtracks. Hawaii also made a major contribution to country music with the introduction of the steel guitar.{{cite book|last=Unterberger|first=Richie|title=Music USA|isbn=978-1-85828-421-7|location=London|publisher=Rough Guides|year=1999|pages=[https://archive.org/details/musicusaroughgui0000unte/page/465 465–473]|url=https://archive.org/details/musicusaroughgui0000unte/page/465}}

Traditional Hawaiian folk music is a major part of the state's musical heritage. The Hawaiian people have inhabited the islands for centuries and have retained much of their traditional musical knowledge. Their music is largely religious in nature, and includes chanting and dance music.

Hawaiian music has had an enormous impact on the music of other Polynesian islands; according to Peter Manuel, the influence of Hawaiian music is a "unifying factor in the development of modern Pacific musics".{{cite book|last=Manuel|first=Peter|title=Popular Musics of the Non-Western World|url=https://archive.org/details/popularmusicsofn0000manu|url-access=registration|isbn=978-0-19-506334-9|location=New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1988|pages=[https://archive.org/details/popularmusicsofn0000manu/page/236 236–241]}} Native Hawaiian musician and Hawaiian sovereignty activist Israel Kamakawiwoʻole, famous for his medley of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World", was named "The Voice of Hawaii" by NPR in 2010 in its 50 great voices series.{{cite news|last=Kamakawiwo|first=Israel|publisher=NPR|url=https://www.npr.org/2010/12/06/131812500/israel-kamakawiwo-ole-the-voice-of-hawaii|title=Israel Kamakawiwo'ole: The Voice Of Hawaii|newspaper=NPR.org|date=December 6, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170416062754/http://www.npr.org/2010/12/06/131812500/israel-kamakawiwo-ole-the-voice-of-hawaii|archive-date=April 16, 2017|url-status=live|access-date=April 16, 2017}}

Due to its distance from the continental United States, team sports in Hawaii are characterised by youth, collegial and amateur teams over professional teams, although some professional teams sports teams have at one time played in the state. Notable professional teams include The Hawaiians, which played at the World Football League in 1974 and 1975; the Hawaii Islanders, a Triple-A minor league baseball team that played at the Pacific Coast League from 1961 to 1987; and Team Hawaii, a North American Soccer League team that played in 1977.

Notable college sports events in Hawaii include the Maui Invitational Tournament, Diamond Head Classic (basketball) and Hawaii Bowl (football). The only NCAA Division I team in Hawaii is the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors and Rainbow Wahine, which competes at the Big West Conference (major sports), Mountain West Conference (football) and Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (minor sports). There are three teams in NCAA Division II: Chaminade Silverswords, Hawaii Pacific Sharks and Hawaii-Hilo Vulcans, all of which compete at the Pacific West Conference.

File:Surfing contest - oahu hawaii - north shore - oct 2015.ogv of Oahu]]

Surfing has been a central part of Polynesian culture for centuries. Since the late 19th century, Hawaii has become a major site for surfists from around the world. Notable competitions include the Triple Crown of Surfing and The Eddie. Likewise, Hawaii has produced elite-level swimmers, including five-time Olympic medalist Duke Kahanamoku and Buster Crabbe, who set 16 swimming

world records.

Hawaii has hosted the Sony Open in Hawaii golf tournament since 1965, the Tournament of Champions golf tournament since 1999, the Lotte Championship golf tournament since 2012, the Honolulu Marathon since 1973, the Ironman World Championship triathlon race since 1978, the Ultraman triathlon since 1983, the National Football League's Pro Bowl from 1980 to 2016, the 2000 FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships, and the 2008 Pan-Pacific Championship and 2012 Hawaiian Islands Invitational soccer tournaments.

Hawaii has produced a number of notable Mixed Martial Arts fighters, such as former UFC Lightweight Champion and UFC Welterweight Champion B.J. Penn, and former UFC Featherweight Champion Max Holloway. Other notable Hawaiian Martial Artists include Travis Browne, K. J. Noons, Brad Tavares and Wesley Correira.

Hawaiians have found success in the world of sumo wrestling. Takamiyama Daigorō was the first foreigner to ever win a sumo title in Japan, while his protege Akebono Tarō became a top-level sumo wrestler in Japan during the 1990s before transitioning into a successful professional wrestling career in the 2000s. Akebono was the first foreign-born Sumo to reach Yokozuna in history and helped fuel a boom in interest in Sumo during his career.

{{main|Tourism in Hawaii}}

File:Punaluu Beach Park, Big Island, Hawaii.jpg, on the Big Island. Tourism is Hawaii's leading employer]]

Tourism is an important part of the Hawaiian economy as it represents ¼ of the economy. According to the Hawaii Tourism: 2019 Annual Visitor Research Report, a total of 10,386,673 visitors arrived in 2019 which increased 5% from the previous year, with expenditures of almost $18 billion.{{cite web |publisher=Hawai{{okina}}i Tourism Authority |title=2019 Annual Visitor Research Report |url=https://files.hawaii.gov/dbedt/visitor/visitor-research/2019-annual-visitor.pdf}} In 2019, tourism provided over 216,000 jobs statewide and contributed more than $2 billion in tax revenue.{{cite web |publisher=Hawai{{okina}}i Tourism Authority |title=Fact Sheet: Benefits of Hawai{{okina}}i's Tourism Economy |url=https://www.hawaiitourismauthority.org/media/4167/hta-tourism-econ-impact-fact-sheet-december-2019.pdf}} Due to mild year-round weather, tourist travel is popular throughout the year. Tourists across the globe visited Hawaii in 2019 with over 1 million tourists from the U.S. East, almost 2 million Japanese tourists, and almost 500,000 Canadian tourists.

It was with statehood in 1959 that the Hawaii tourism industry began to grow.{{cite journal |last=Miller-Davenport |first=Sarah |date=February 13, 2017 |title=A 'Montage of Minorities': Hawai{{okina}}i Tourism and the Commodification of Racial Tolerance, 1959–1978* |journal=The Historical Journal |volume=60 |issue=3 |pages=817–842 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X16000364 |s2cid=152041916 |issn=0018-246X|doi-access=free }}

According to Hawaiian scholar Haunani-Kay Trask, tourism in Hawaii has led to the commodification and exploitation of Hawaiian culture resulting in insidious forms of "cultural prostitution". Hawaii has been used to fuel ideas of escapism yet tourism in Hawaii ignores the harm Kanaka and locals experience.{{cite journal |last=Trask |first=Haunani-Kay |title=Lovely Hula Lands: Corporate Tourism and the Prostitution of Hawaiian Culture |url=https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/bl/article/view/24958 |journal=Border/Lines |year=1991 |issue=23}} Cultural traditions such as the hula have been made "ornamental ... a form of exotica" for tourists as a way for large corporations and land owners to gain profit over the exploitation of Hawaiian people and culture.

Tourism in Hawai{{okina}}i has been considered as an escape from reality resulting in the dismissal of violence faced by Native Hawaiians and locals living on the land. According to scholar Winona LaDuke, native Hawaiians have been forced to gather "shrimp and fish from ponds sitting on resort property".{{cite book |last=LaDuke |first=Winona |chapter=Hawai{{okina}}i: The Birth of the Land and Its Preservation by the Hands of the People |title=All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life |publisher=South End Press}} Tourism has also had damaging effects on the environment such as water shortages, overcrowding, sea level rising, elevated sea surface temperatures and micro plastics on beaches.{{cite journal |last1=Cooper |first1=Hannah |last2=Chen |first2=Qi |last3=Fletcher |first3=Charles |last4=Barbee |first4=Matthew |title=Assessing Vulnerability Due to Sea-level Rise in Maui, Hawai{{okina}}i Using LiDAR Remote Sensing and GIS |journal=Climatic Change |volume=116 |issue=3–4 |pages=547–563 |date=2013 |bibcode=2013ClCh..116..547C |s2cid=545364 |doi=10.1007/s10584-012-0510-9}}{{cite journal |last1=Rodgers |first1=Ku'ulei |last2=Bahr |first2=Keisha |last3=Jokiel |first3=Paul |last4=Richards Donà |first4=Angela |title=Patterns of Bleaching and Mortality following Widespread Warming Events in 2014 and 2015 at the Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve, Hawai{{okina}}i |journal=PeerJ |volume=5 |pages=e3355 |date=2017 |pmid=28584703 |pmc=5452947 |doi=10.7717/peerj.3355 |doi-access=free}}{{cite journal |last1=Rey |first1=Savannah |last2=Franklin |first2=Janet |last3=Rey |first3=Sergio |title=Microplastic Pollution on Island Beaches, Oahu, Hawai{{okina}}i |journal=PLOS ONE |year=2021 |volume=16|issue=2 |pages=e0247224 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0247224 |pmid=33600448 |pmc=7891709 |bibcode=2021PLoSO..1647224R |doi-access=free}}

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism in Hawai{{okina}}i came to a halt, which allowed the land, water, and animals to began to heal. Fish like the baby akule and big ulua have returned after years of not being around the bay. The coral reefs, fish, water growth, and limu (algae) growth was able to flourish without the heavy toll of tourism.{{cite web |last1=Morimoto |first1=Tianna |title=A Time For Healing: Hawai{{okina}}i's Coral Reefs Rebound During COVID-19 |url=https://hitchcockproject.org/hawaii-coral-reefs-healing/ |website=The Hitchcock Project for Visualizing Science|date=September 2020 }}

There has been pushback against tourism by Native Hawaiians, urging people not to visit the islands. A survey by the Hawaii Tourism Authority indicated over ⅔ of Hawaiians did not want tourists to return to Hawaii. Tourism had "become extractive and hurtful, with tourists coming here and taking, taking, taking, taking, without any reciprocation with locals".{{cite news |last1=Mzezwa |first1=Tariro |title=In Hawaii, Reimagining Tourism for a Post-Pandemic World |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/07/travel/hawaii-covid-tourism.html |work=The New York Times|date=March 7, 2021 }}

Hawaii hosts numerous cultural events. The annual Merrie Monarch Festival is an international Hula competition.{{cite news |url=http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/current/il/merriemonarch05 |title=Merrie Monarch Festival 2005 |newspaper=The Honolulu Advertiser |access-date=May 15, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091005224410/http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/current/il/merriemonarch05 |archive-date=October 5, 2009 |url-status=live }} The Hawaii International Film Festival is the premier film festival for Pacific rim cinema.{{cite journal |url=http://www.travelweekly.com/Hawaii-Travel/Insights/Hawaii-International-Film-Festival--Kinship-through-cinema/?a=hawaii |title=Hawaii International Film Festival: Kinship through cinema |journal=Travel Weekly |first=Shane |last=Nelson |date=August 8, 2011 |access-date=May 10, 2012 |oclc=60626324 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121114045659/http://www.travelweekly.com/Hawaii-Travel/Insights/Hawaii-International-Film-Festival--Kinship-through-cinema/?a=hawaii |archive-date=November 14, 2012 |url-status=live }} Honolulu hosts the state's long-running LGBT film festival, the Rainbow Film Festival.{{cite web |url=http://www.hnlnow.com/events/index.php?com=detail&eID=10075&year=2008&month=5 |title=19th Annual Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival at Doris Duke Theatre: Honolulu Hawaii Nightlife Event Guide |publisher=Hnlnow.com |access-date=May 15, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090827040400/http://www.hnlnow.com/events/index.php?com=detail&eID=10075&year=2008&month=5 |archive-date=August 27, 2009 }}{{cite web |url=http://archives.starbulletin.com/2001/05/29/features/index.html |title=Honolulu Star-Bulletin Features |publisher=Archives.starbulletin.com |date=May 29, 2001 |access-date=November 5, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100705150332/http://archives.starbulletin.com/2001/05/29/features/index.html |archive-date=July 5, 2010 |url-status=live }}

{{Main|Hawaii Prepaid Health Care Act}}

{{As of|2009}}, Hawaii's health care system insures 92% of residents. Under the state's plan, businesses are required to provide insurance to employees who work more than twenty hours per week. Heavy regulation of insurance companies helps reduce the cost to employers. Due in part to heavy emphasis on preventive care, Hawaiians require hospital treatment less frequently than the rest of the United States, while total health care expenses measured as a percentage of state GDP are substantially lower.{{citation needed|date=June 2014}} Proponents of universal health care elsewhere in the U.S. sometimes use Hawaii as a model for proposed federal and state health care plans.{{citation needed|date=June 2014}}

{{Main|Hawaii Department of Education}}{{See also|List of elementary schools in Hawaii|List of middle schools in Hawaii|List of high schools in Hawaii}}

File:Waianae High School (5888481033).jpg, located in Wai{{okina}}anae, houses an educational community media center]]

Hawaii has the only school system within the U.S. that is unified statewide. Policy decisions are made by the fourteen-member state Board of Education, which sets policy and hires the superintendent of schools, who oversees the Hawaii Department of Education. The Department of Education is divided into seven districts; four on O{{okina}}ahu and one for each of the other three counties.

Public elementary, middle and high school test scores in Hawaii are below national averages on tests mandated under the No Child Left Behind Act. The Hawaii Board of Education requires all eligible students to take these tests and report all student test scores. This may have unbalanced the results that reported in August 2005 that of 282 schools across the state, 185 failed to reach federal minimum performance standards in mathematics and reading.{{cite web|url=http://www.thehawaiichannel.com/education/4870699/detail.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070318182117/http://www.thehawaiichannel.com/education/4870699/detail.html |archive-date=March 18, 2007 |title=Two-Thirds of Hawaii Schools Do Not Meet Requirements—Education News Story—KITV Honolulu |publisher=Thehawaiichannel.com |date=August 18, 2005 |access-date=May 15, 2010}} The ACT college placement tests show that in 2005, seniors scored slightly above the national average (21.9 compared with 20.9),Honolulu Advertiser, August 17, 2005, p. B1 but in the widely accepted SAT examinations, Hawaii's college-bound seniors tend to score below the national average in all categories except mathematics.

The first native controlled public charter school was the Kanu O Ka Aina New Century Charter School.{{cite book |title=US: Hawaii Investment and Business Guide Volume 1 |date=March 20, 2009 |publisher=Intl Business Pubns USA |isbn=978-1438721880 |page=34 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aGndCwAAQBAJ&q=The+first+native+controlled+public+charter+school+was+the+Kanu+O+Ka+Aina+New+Century+Charter+School&pg=PA34 |access-date=October 30, 2019 |archive-date=September 21, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200921094011/https://books.google.com/books?id=aGndCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA34&lpg=PA34&dq=The+first+native+controlled+public+charter+school+was+the+Kanu+O+Ka+Aina+New+Century+Charter+School&hl=en |url-status=live }}

Hawaii has the highest rates of private school attendance in the nation. During the 2011–2012 school year, Hawaii public and charter schools had an enrollment of 181,213,{{cite web |url=http://lilinote.k12.hi.us/STATE/COMM/DOEPRESS.NSF/a1d7af052e94dd120a2561f7000a037c/81c3aa4a36044f930a257927007ab8d5?OpenDocument |title=News—Official 2011–12 Public and Charter School Enrollment |publisher=Hawaiʻi Department of Education |location=Honolulu, HI |website=Hawaii Public Schools |date=October 12, 2011 |access-date=May 12, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309125225/http://lilinote.k12.hi.us/STATE/COMM/DOEPRESS.NSF/a1d7af052e94dd120a2561f7000a037c/81c3aa4a36044f930a257927007ab8d5?OpenDocument |archive-date=March 9, 2012 |url-status=live}} while private schools had 37,695.{{cite web |url=http://www.hais.org/uploads/file/about_stats_hcpsenrollrpt12.pdf#page=3 |title=Private School Enrollment Report 2011–2012 |author=Jordan, Cynthia |website=Hawaii Association of Independent Schools |location=Honolulu, HI |date=October 10, 2011 |page=3 |access-date=May 12, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117104733/http://www.hais.org/uploads/file/about_stats_hcpsenrollrpt12.pdf#page=3 |archive-date=January 17, 2013 |url-status=live}} Private schools educated over 17% of students in Hawaii that school year, nearly three times the approximate national average of 6%.{{cite web |url=http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/2009062.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090919172601/http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/2009062.pdf |archive-date=September 19, 2009 |title=Projections of Education Statistics to 2018 |author1=Hussar, William J. |author2=Bailey, Tabitha M. |website=National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Home Page, a part of the U.S. Department of Education |publisher=National Center for Education Statistics |location=Washington, DC |date=September 11, 2009 |page=6 (22 out of 68)|access-date=May 12, 2012}} According to Alia Wong of Honolulu Civil Beat, this is due to private schools being relatively inexpensive compared to ones on the mainland as well as the overall reputations of private schools.{{cite web |last=Wong |first=Alia |title=Living Hawaii: Many Families Sacrifice to Put Kids in Private Schools |url=https://www.civilbeat.org/2014/03/living-hawaii-many-families-sacrifice-to-put-kids-in-private-schools/ |work=Honolulu Civil Beat |date=March 17, 2014 |access-date=October 7, 2020}}

It has four of the largest independent schools; {{okina}}Iolani School, Kamehameha Schools, Mid-Pacific Institute and Punahou School. Pacific Buddhist Academy, the second Buddhist high school in the U.S. and first such school in Hawaii, was founded in 2003.

Independent schools can select their students, while most public schools of HIDOE are open to all students in their attendance zones. The Kamehameha Schools are the only schools in the U.S. that openly grant admission to students based on ancestry; collectively, they are one of the wealthiest schools in the United States, if not the world, having over eleven billion US dollars in estate assets.{{cite web |url=http://www.ksbe.edu/assets/annual_reports/KS_Annual_Report_2014.pdf |title=Kamehameha Schools 2013–2014 Annual Report |access-date=September 28, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150603160954/http://www.ksbe.edu/assets/annual_reports/KS_Annual_Report_2014.pdf |archive-date=June 3, 2015 |url-status=live }} In 2005, Kamehameha enrolled 5,398 students, 8.4% of the Native Hawaiian children in the state.

{{cite web

|url = http://www.ksbe.edu/pase/pdf/Reports/K-12/05_06_8.pdf

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100527133819/http://www.ksbe.edu/pase/pdf/Reports/K-12/05_06_8.pdf

|archive-date = May 27, 2010

|title = Official Enrollment

|author = Ishibasha, Koren

|date = November 2005

|access-date = December 1, 2009

|url-status = dead

|df = mdy}}

{{See also|List of colleges and universities in Hawaii}}

File:Stone marking the entrance to University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.jpg]]

The largest institution of higher learning in Hawaii is the University of Hawaiʻi System, which consists of the research university at Mānoa, two comprehensive campuses at Hilo and West O{{okina}}ahu, and seven community colleges. Private universities include Brigham Young University–Hawaii, Chaminade University of Honolulu, Hawaii Pacific University, and Wayland Baptist University. Saint Stephen Diocesan Center is a seminary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu. Kona hosts the University of the Nations, which is not an accredited university.

{{main|Transportation in Hawaii}}

{{See also|Hawaii Department of Transportation|List of airports in Hawaii|Aviation in Hawaii}}

File:HonoluluAirportWelcomeSign.jpg

A system of state highways encircles each main island. Only O{{okina}}ahu has federal highways, and is the only area outside the contiguous 48 states to have signed Interstate highways. Narrow, winding roads and congestion in populated places can slow traffic. Each major island has a public bus system.

Honolulu International Airport (IATA:{{spaces}}HNL), which shares runways with the adjacent Hickam Field (IATA:{{spaces}}HIK), is the major commercial aviation hub of Hawaii. The commercial aviation airport offers intercontinental service to North America, Asia, Australia and Oceania. Hawaiian Airlines and Mokulele Airlines use jets to provide services between the large airports in Honolulu, Līhu{{okina}}e, Kahului, Kona and Hilo. These airlines also provide air freight services between the islands. On May 30, 2017, the airport was officially renamed as the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL), after U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye.{{cite web|url=http://hidot.hawaii.gov/blog/2017/05/30/hawaiis-biggest-airport-officially-renamed-daniel-k-inouye-international-airport/|title=Department of Transportation—Hawaii's biggest airport officially renamed Daniel K. Inouye International Airport|website=hidot.hawaii.gov|access-date=July 5, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706081700/http://hidot.hawaii.gov/blog/2017/05/30/hawaiis-biggest-airport-officially-renamed-daniel-k-inouye-international-airport/|archive-date=July 6, 2017|url-status=live}}

Until air passenger services began in the 1920s,{{cite web |url=http://hawaii.gov/hawaiiaviation/hawaii-commercial-aviation/inter-island-airways-hawaiian-airlines |title=Inter-Island Airways/Hawaiian Airlines—Hawaii Aviation |first=William J. |last=Horvat |website=Hawaii's Aviation History |location=Honolulu, HI |publisher=State of Hawaii |access-date=May 5, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314153623/http://hawaii.gov/hawaiiaviation/hawaii-commercial-aviation/inter-island-airways-hawaiian-airlines |archive-date=March 14, 2012 |url-status=live }} private boats were the sole means of traveling between the islands. Seaflite operated hydrofoils between the major islands in the mid-1970s.{{cite news |author=Cataluna, Lee |title=Nothing Smooth on Seaflite |newspaper=The Honolulu Advertiser |date=December 23, 2005 |url=http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/Dec/23/ln/FP512230359.html |access-date=August 12, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111009110605/http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/Dec/23/ln/FP512230359.html |archive-date=October 9, 2011 |url-status=live }}

The Hawaii Superferry operated between O{{okina}}ahu and Maui between December 2007 and March 2009, with additional routes planned for other islands. Protests and legal problems over environmental impact statements ended the service, though the company operating Superferry has expressed a wish to recommence ferry services in the future.{{cite news |newspaper=Honolulu Star-Bulletin |url=http://archives.starbulletin.com/content/20090329_Aloha_Superferry |title=Aloha, Superferry Alakai leaves Hawaii to find job |location=Honolulu, HI |publisher=Black Press Group Ltd |issn=0439-5271 |id={{OCLC|9188300|433678262|232117605|2268098}} |date=March 29, 2009 |access-date=May 8, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121013185707/http://archives.starbulletin.com/content/20090329_Aloha_Superferry |archive-date=October 13, 2012 |url-status=live }} Currently there is a passenger ferry service in Maui County between Lana{{okina}}i and Maui,{{cite web |url= https://ssl.go-lanai.com/ |title= Expeditions: Maui—Lanaʻi Ferry Service |access-date= May 5, 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120509054306/https://ssl.go-lanai.com/ |archive-date= May 9, 2012 |url-status= live }} which does not take vehicles; a passenger ferry to Molokai ended in 2016.{{Cite web|url=https://www.mauinews.com/news/local-news/2016/10/molokai-ferry-ends-service-this-month/|title=Molokai ferry ends service this month | News, Sports, Jobs—Maui News|access-date=October 28, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191028172749/https://www.mauinews.com/news/local-news/2016/10/molokai-ferry-ends-service-this-month/|archive-date=October 28, 2019|url-status=live}} Currently Norwegian Cruise Lines and Princess Cruises provide passenger cruise ship services between the larger islands.{{cite web |url=http://www2.ncl.com/cruise-destination/hawaii/overview |title=Hawaii Cruises Cruise Overview | Hawaii Cruises Cruise Destinations & Vacation Packages |website=Norwegian Cruise Line |location=Miami-Dade County, FL |access-date=May 5, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120503161613/http://www2.ncl.com/cruise-destination/hawaii/overview |archive-date=May 3, 2012 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=http://www.princess.com/learn/destinations/hawaii/index.html |title=Hawaii, Tahiti, & South Pacific Cruises |website=Princess Cruises |location=Santa Clarita, CA |access-date=May 5, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120505050333/http://www.princess.com/learn/destinations/hawaii/index.html |archive-date=May 5, 2012 |url-status=live }}

At one time Hawaii had a network of railroads on each of the larger islands that transported farm commodities and passengers. Most were {{RailGauge|3ft}} narrow gauge systems but there were some {{RailGauge|2ft6in}} gauge on some of the smaller islands. The standard gauge in the U.S. is {{RailGauge|4ft8.5in}}. By far the largest railroad was the Oahu Railway and Land Company (OR&L) that ran lines from Honolulu across the western and northern part of Oahu.{{cite book |title=Hawaiian Railway Album—WW II Photographs Vol 2 |author1=Norton Jr., Victor |author2=Treiber, Gale E. |year=2005 |publisher=Railroad Press |location=Hanover, PA}}

The OR&L was important for moving troops and goods during World War II. Traffic on this line was busy enough for signals to be used to facilitate movement of trains and to require wigwag signals at some railroad crossings for the protection of motorists. The main line was officially abandoned in 1947, although part of it was bought by the U.S. Navy and operated until 1970. {{convert|13|mi|km|spell=In}} of track remain; preservationists occasionally run trains over a portion of this line.

Skyline is an elevated passenger rail line operated by HART, a semi-autonomous agency of the City and County of Honolulu. It was built with the intention to relieve highway congestion.{{cite web |url=https://www.transit.dot.gov/sites/fta.dot.gov/files/docs/HI_Honolulu_HCT_Profile_FY17_0.pdf |title=High Capacity Transit Corridor Project: Honolulu, Hawaii |publisher= |date=December 2015 |access-date=26 June 2022}} A portion of Skyline opened for service in 2023, with the next phase expected to open in October 2025, and the final phase in 2031.{{Cite web |last1=Aquino |first1=Jamm |last2=Russell |first2=Cindy Ellen |date=2023-06-30 |title=Ridership commences on Honolulu's rail system |url=https://www.staradvertiser.com/2023/06/30/photo-gallery/ridership-commences-on-honolulus-rail-system/ |access-date=2023-07-02 |website=Honolulu Star-Advertiser}}

{{See also|List of counties in Hawaii}}

File:Washington Place Honolulu HI.jpg officially resides at Washington Place, an old American-built residence]]

The movement of the Hawaiian royal family from Hawai{{okina}}i Island to Maui, and subsequently to O{{okina}}ahu, explains the modern-day distribution of population centers. Kamehameha III chose the largest city, Honolulu, as his capital because of its natural harbor—the present-day Honolulu Harbor. Now the state capital, Honolulu is located along the southeast coast of O{{okina}}ahu. The previous capital was Lahaina, Maui, and before that Kailua-Kona, Hawai{{okina}}i. Some major towns are Hilo; Kaneohe; Kailua; Pearl City; Waipahu; Kahului; Kailua-Kona. Kīhei; and Līhu{{okina}}e.

Hawaii has five counties: the City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii County, Maui County, Kauai County, and Kalawao County.

Hawaii has the fewest local governments among U.S. states.{{cite web | url=http://www2.census.gov/library/publications/2010/compendia/statab/130ed/tables/11s0427.pdf | title=Number of Local Governments by Type | publisher=U.S. Census Bureau | access-date=December 4, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208152305/http://www2.census.gov/library/publications/2010/compendia/statab/130ed/tables/11s0427.pdf | archive-date=December 8, 2015 | url-status=live }}{{cite web | url=http://www2.census.gov/govs/cog/2007/hi.pdf | title=Hawaii | publisher=U.S. Census Bureau | access-date=December 4, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304202644/http://www2.census.gov/govs/cog/2007/hi.pdf | archive-date=March 4, 2016 | url-status=live }} Unique to this state is the lack of municipal governments. All local governments are generally administered at the county level. The only incorporated area in the state is Honolulu County, a consolidated city–county that governs the entire island of Oahu. County executives are referred to as mayors; these are the Mayor of Hawaii County, Mayor of Honolulu, Mayor of Kaua{{okina}}i, and the Mayor of Maui. The mayors are all elected in nonpartisan elections. Kalawao County has no elected government,{{cite web|url=http://www.chem.hawaii.edu/uham/counties.html|title=Hawaii's 4 (or 5) Counties|access-date=January 22, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070805013928/http://www.chem.hawaii.edu/uham/counties.html|archive-date=August 5, 2007|url-status=dead}} and as mentioned above there are no local school districts; instead, all local public education is administered at the state level by the Hawaii Department of Education. The remaining local governments are special districts.

{{Further|Category:State agencies of Hawaii}}

File:Hawaii State Capitol, Honolulu.jpg building]]

The state government of Hawaii is modeled after the federal government with adaptations originating from the kingdom era of Hawaiian history. As codified in the Constitution of Hawaii, there are three branches of government: executive, legislative, and judicial, although the Office of Hawaiian Affairs is often referred to as the fourth branch of government as it does not fall under the other three branches. The executive branch is led by the Governor of Hawaii, who is assisted by the Lieutenant Governor of Hawaii, both of whom are elected on the same ticket. The governor is the only state public official elected statewide; all others are appointed by the governor. The lieutenant governor acts as the Secretary of State. The governor and lieutenant governor oversee twenty agencies and departments from offices in the State Capitol. The official residence of the governor is Washington Place.

The legislative branch consists of the bicameral Hawaii State Legislature, which is composed of the 51-member Hawaii House of Representatives led by the Speaker of the House, and the 25-member Hawaii Senate led by the President of the Senate. The Legislature meets at the State Capitol. The unified judicial branch of Hawaii is the Hawaii State Judiciary. The state's highest court is the Supreme Court of Hawaii, which uses Ali{{okina}}iōlani Hale as its chambers.

File:Brian Schatz, official portrait, 113th Congress 2.jpg|Senator Brian Schatz

File:Mazie Hirono, official portrait, 113th Congress.jpg|Senator Mazie Hirono

File:Ed Case, official portrait, 117th Congress.jpg|Representative Ed Case (HI-1)

File:Rep. Jill Tokuda official photo, 118th Congress (1).jpg|Representative Jill Tokuda (HI-2)

Hawaii is represented in the United States Congress by two senators and two representatives. {{As of|2023}}, all four seats are held by Democrats. Former representative Ed Case was elected in 2018 to the 1st congressional district. Jill Tokuda represents the 2nd congressional district, representing the rest of the state, which is largely rural and semi-rural.{{Cite web |title=tokuda.house.gov |date=January 3, 2023 |url=https://tokuda.house.gov/about |access-date=19 February 2023}}

Brian Schatz is the senior United States senator from Hawaii. He was appointed to the office on December 26, 2012, by Governor Neil Abercrombie, following the death of former senator Daniel Inouye. Schatz then won the 2014 special election, and the 2016 and 2022 regular elections in Hawaii as Senator.

The state's junior senator is Mazie Hirono, the former representative from the second congressional district. She won in the 2012, 2018, and 2024 elections for Senator in Hawaii, following the retirement of Daniel Akaka. Hirono is the first female Asian American senator and the first Buddhist senator.

Hawaii incurred the biggest seniority shift between the 112th and 113th Congresses. The state went from a delegation consisting of senators who were first and twenty-first in seniority{{efn|Senator Inouye, who ranked first in seniority, died in December 2012. Senator Daniel Akaka, who ranked 21st of the Senate's one hundred members, retired in January 2013 after serving twenty-three years in the Senate.}} to their respective replacements, relative newcomers Schatz and Hirono.{{cite web |last=Blackwell |first=Sarah |url=http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/01/04/the-junior-senior-senators/ |title=msnbc's The Daily Rundown, 23 December 2009, accessed 6 January 2012 |publisher=nbcnews.com |date=January 4, 2013 |access-date=January 6, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130109163428/http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/01/04/the-junior-senior-senators/ |archive-date=January 9, 2013 |url-status=live }}

Federal officials in Hawaii are based at the Prince Kūhiō Federal Building near the Aloha Tower and Honolulu Harbor. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service and the Secret Service maintain their offices there; the building is also the site of the federal District Court for the District of Hawaii and the United States Attorney for the District of Hawaii.

{{Main|Politics of Hawaii}}

{{See also|Political party strength in Hawaii|United States presidential elections in Hawaii}}

File:Obama signs Zadroga Act.jpg signs the Zadroga Act in Kailua, Hawaii]]

Since gaining statehood and participating in its first election in 1960, Hawaii has supported Democrats in all but two presidential elections: 1972 and 1984, both of which were landslide reelection victories for Republicans Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan respectively. In Hawaii's statehood tenure, only Minnesota has supported Republican candidates fewer times in presidential elections. The 2022 Cook Partisan Voting Index ranks Hawaii as the third-most heavily Democratic state in the nation.{{cite web |title=2022 Cook PVI: State Map and List |url=https://www.cookpolitical.com/cook-pvi/2022-partisan-voting-index/state-map-and-list |website=The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter |date=July 12, 2022 |access-date=2024-04-24}}

Hawaii has not elected a Republican to represent the state in the U.S. Senate since Hiram Fong in 1970; since 1977, both of the state's U.S. Senators have been Democrats.{{cite news|last=Kaste|first=Martin|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2012/09/13/161096416/can-a-republican-win-a-senate-seat-in-blue-hawaii|title=Can A Republican Win A Senate Seat in Blue Hawaii?|publisher=NPR|date=September 13, 2012|access-date=May 17, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150526130428/http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2012/09/13/161096416/can-a-republican-win-a-senate-seat-in-blue-hawaii|archive-date=May 26, 2015|url-status=live}}{{cite news|last=Bernstein|first=Adam|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13805-2004Aug18.html|title=Hiram Fong Dies; One of First Hawaiian Senators|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=August 19, 2004|access-date=May 17, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150903230441/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13805-2004Aug18.html|archive-date=September 3, 2015|url-status=live}}

In 2004, John Kerry won the state's four electoral votes by a margin of nine percentage points with 54% of the vote. Every county supported the Democratic candidate. In 1964, favorite son candidate senator Hiram Fong of Hawaii sought the Republican presidential nomination, while Patsy Mink ran in the Oregon primary in 1972.

File:John Richardson and David Ige 161207-N-AT895-171 (30656444724).jpg with U.S. Navy admiral John Richardson at the 75th Commemoration Event of the Pearl Harbor and Oahu attacks in 2016]]

Honolulu-born Barack Obama, then serving as a United States senator from Illinois, was elected the 44th president of the United States on November 4, 2008, and was re-elected for a second term on November 6, 2012. Obama had won the Hawaii Democratic caucus on February 19, 2008, with 76% of the vote. He was the third Hawaii-born candidate to seek the nomination of a major party, the first presidential nominee and first president from Hawaii.{{cite news |last=Rudin |first=Ken |url=https://www.npr.org/blogs/politicaljunkie/2009/12/todays_junkie_segment_on_totn_5.html |title=NPR's Political Junkie |newspaper=NPR |publisher=Npr.org |date=December 23, 2009 |access-date=May 15, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511153042/http://www.npr.org/blogs/politicaljunkie/2009/12/todays_junkie_segment_on_totn_5.html |archive-date=May 11, 2011 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=96126355 |title=Asian Writer Ponders First Asian President Too |publisher=Npr.org |date=October 29, 2008 |access-date=May 15, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110217191156/http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=96126355 |archive-date=February 17, 2011 |url-status=live }}

In a 2020 study, Hawaii was ranked as the 6th easiest state for citizens to vote in.{{cite journal |last1=J. Pomante II |first1=Michael |last2=Li |first2=Quan |title=Cost of Voting in the American States: 2020 |journal=Election Law Journal: Rules, Politics, and Policy |date=15 Dec 2020 |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=503–509 |doi=10.1089/elj.2020.0666 |s2cid=225139517 |doi-access=free }}

Hawaii has a statewide sheriff department under its Department of Public Safety that provides law enforcement protection to government buildings and Daniel K. Inouye International Airport as well as correction services to all correctional facilities owned by the state.

Counties have their own respective police departments with their own jurisdictions:

• Kauai County Police Department for the island of Kauai
• Honolulu Police Department for Oahu
• Maui County Police Department for Molokai, Maui and Lanai
• Hawaii County Police Department for the Big Island

Forensic services for all agencies in the state are provided by the Honolulu Police Department.{{cite book|author=R Spencer Kidd|title=UNIFORMS OF THE U.S. STATE POLICE & HIGHWAY PATROLS|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TLDoAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA33|date=November 23, 2012|publisher=Lulu.com|isbn=978-1-4717-7729-5|pages=33–|access-date=April 30, 2020|archive-date=September 21, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200921094016/https://books.google.com/books?id=TLDoAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA33&hl=en|url-status=live}}

In January 2022, state officials proposed legislation that would split the sheriff department from the Department of Public Safety and consolidate it with the criminal investigation division from the Department of the Attorney General to create a new Department of Law Enforcement that would create a statewide police agency with the ability to investigate crimes.{{cite web|date=January 8, 2022|title=Hawaii Proposes Statewide Law Enforcement Agency|url=https://www.civilbeat.org/2022/01/hawaii-proposes-statewide-law-enforcement-agency/|access-date=2022-02-06|website=Honolulu Civil Beat}}

{{main|Hawaiian sovereignty movement|List of Hawaiian sovereignty movement groups|Legal status of Hawaii}}

File:Kaniakapupu Ruins (15095487633).jpg royal summer palace ruins in Honolulu County]]

While Hawaii is internationally recognized as a state of the United States while also being broadly accepted as such in mainstream understanding, the legality of this status has been questioned in U.S. District Court, the U.N., and other international forums. Domestically, the debate is a topic covered in the Kamehameha Schools curriculum, and in classes at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.{{cite web|url=http://www.catalog.hawaii.edu/schoolscolleges/hawaiian/kamakakuokalani.htm|publisher=University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201051929/http://www.catalog.hawaii.edu/schoolscolleges/hawaiian/kamakakuokalani.htm|archive-date=December 1, 2017|access-date=November 24, 2017|title=Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies}}

Political organizations seeking some form of sovereignty for Hawaii have been active since the late 19th century. Generally, their focus is on self-determination and self-governance, either for Hawaii as an independent nation (in many proposals, for "Hawaiian nationals" descended from subjects of the Hawaiian Kingdom or declaring themselves as such by choice), or for people of whole or part native Hawaiian ancestry in an indigenous "nation to nation" relationship akin to tribal sovereignty with US federal recognition of Native Hawaiians. The pro-federal recognition Akaka Bill drew substantial opposition among Hawaiian residents in the 2000s.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/us/11hawaii.html|title=Hawaiians Weigh Options as Native-Status Bill Stalls|work=The New York Times|date=June 11, 2006|access-date=July 3, 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180703191002/https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/us/11hawaii.html|archive-date=July 3, 2018}}{{cite web|url=http://www.unpo.org/article/2089|title=Ka Lahui Hawaiʻi: Akaka Bill Has Plenty of Vocal Opposition|date=March 8, 2005|access-date=July 3, 2018|archive-date=September 21, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200921094016/https://www.unpo.org/article/2089|url-status=live}} Opponents to the tribal approach argue it is not a legitimate path to Hawaiian nationhood; they also argue that the U.S. government should not be involved in re-establishing Hawaiian sovereignty.{{cite web|author=Imani Altemus-Williams|date=December 7, 2015|url=https://intercontinentalcry.org/towards-hawaiian-independence|work=IC|publisher=Center for World Indigenous Studies|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180703190909/https://intercontinentalcry.org/towards-hawaiian-independence|archive-date=July 3, 2018|title=Towards Hawaiian Independence: Native Americans warn Native Hawaiians of the dangers of Federal Recognition|access-date=July 3, 2018}}{{cite magazine|author=ʻUmi Perkins|date=January 16, 2015|title=Is Hawaiʻi an Occupied State?|website=The Nation|url=https://www.thenation.com/article/hawaii-occupied-state/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180708074420/https://www.thenation.com/article/hawaii-occupied-state/|archive-date=July 8, 2018|access-date=July 7, 2018}}

The Hawaiian sovereignty movement views the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1893 as illegal, and views the subsequent annexation of Hawaii by the United States as illegal as well; the movement seeks some form of greater autonomy for Hawaii, such as free association or independence from the United States.{{cite web|url=http://hawaii-nation.org/rape.html|title=The Rape of Paradise: The Second Century Hawaiʻians Grope Toward Sovereignty As The U.S. President Apologizes|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303191212/http://hawaii-nation.org/rape.html|archive-date=March 3, 2016|work=Perceptions Magazine|author=Johnny Liberty|author2=Richard Neff Hubbard|date=March–April 1996|pages=18–25|via=Hawai`i Independent & Sovereign|access-date=October 30, 2015}}{{cite news|url=http://www.govexec.com/state-local/2014/08/hawaii-sovereignty-department-interior-hearings/91247/|title=As Feds Hold Hearings, Native Hawaiians Press Sovereignty Claims|date=August 12, 2014|publisher=Government Executive|agency=Government Executive|last1=Grass|first1=Michael|access-date=October 29, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151007091037/http://www.govexec.com/state-local/2014/08/hawaii-sovereignty-department-interior-hearings/91247/|archive-date=October 7, 2015|url-status=live}}{{cite book|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=mn8TAgAAQBAJ|page=294}}|title=The United States Social Forum: Perspectives of a Movement|publisher=Lulu.com|year=2010|isbn=978-0-557-32373-9|page=294|author=United States Social Forum. Book Committee}}{{cite book|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=8ep_MtL5BacC|page=153}}|title=Hawaii—The Fake State|publisher=Trafford Publishing|year=2008|isbn=978-1-4251-7524-5|page=153|author=Aran Alton Ardaiz}}

Some groups also advocate some form of redress from the United States for the 1893 overthrow of Queen Lili{{okina}}uokalani, and for what is described as a prolonged military occupation beginning with the 1898 annexation. The Apology Resolution passed by US Congress in 1993 is cited as a major impetus by the movement for Hawaiian sovereignty. The sovereignty movement considers Hawaii to be an illegally occupied nation.{{cite book|author=United States Social Forum. Book Committee|title=The United States Social Forum: Perspectives of a Movement|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=mn8TAgAAQBAJ|page=294}}|year=2010|publisher=Lulu.com|isbn=978-0-557-32373-9|page=294}}{{cite book|author=Aran Alton Ardaiz|title=Hawaii—The Fake State|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=8ep_MtL5BacC|page=153}}|year=2008|publisher=Trafford Publishing|isbn=978-1-4251-7524-5|page=153}}

• {{Flagicon|Ehime}} Ehime, Japan, 2003{{cite web |title=International exchange activated with globalization|publisher=Ehime Prefecture|url=http://www.pref.ehime.jp/h30100/global/industry/grobal.html|access-date=October 27, 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180930043647/http://www.pref.ehime.jp/h30100/global/industry/grobal.html|archive-date=September 30, 2018}}
• {{Flagicon|Fukuoka}} Fukuoka, Japan, 1981{{cite web |title=ハワイアンフェスティバル in 福岡 2018|publisher=Fukuoka Prefecture|url=http://www.pref.fukuoka.lg.jp/contents/hawaii20180721.html|language=ja|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190414133940/http://www.pref.fukuoka.lg.jp/contents/hawaii20180721.html|archive-date=April 14, 2019}}
• {{Flagicon|Hiroshima}} Hiroshima, Japan, 1997{{cite web |title=広島県・ハワイ州友好提携20周年記念（展示会） 広島から世界へ―移住の歴史と日系人の暮らし― を開催しました。|publisher=Hiroshima Prefecture|url=https://www.pref.hiroshima.lg.jp/soshiki/38/hawaii-imin.html|language=ja|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190414133235/https://www.pref.hiroshima.lg.jp/soshiki/38/hawaii-imin.html|archive-date=April 14, 2019}}
• {{Flagicon|Hokkaido}} Hokkaido, Japan, 2017{{cite web |title=Hokkaido Sister City and Affiliated Regions Round Table Meeting|publisher=Hokkaido|url=http://www.pref.hokkaido.lg.jp/ss/tsk/RTMENGLISH.htm|access-date=March 5, 2019|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190305222132/http://www.pref.hokkaido.lg.jp/ss/tsk/RTMENGLISH.htm|archive-date=March 5, 2019}}
• {{Flagicon|Okinawa}} Okinawa, Japan, 1985{{cite web |title=沖縄・ハワイ州姉妹提携30周年記念式典(10月9日)|publisher=Okinawa Prefecture|url=https://www.pref.okinawa.jp/site/chijiko/kohokoryu/koho/topic/201510091.html|language=ja|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190414134639/https://www.pref.okinawa.jp/site/chijiko/kohokoryu/koho/topic/201510091.html|archive-date=April 14, 2019}}
• {{Flagicon|Yamaguchi}} Yamaguchi, Japan, 2022{{cite web |title=HAWAII'S SISTER-STATES |url=https://invest.hawaii.gov/international/sister-states/ |website=Business Development and Support Division logo Business Development and Support Division |publisher=State of Hawaii |access-date=30 March 2024}}
• {{Flagicon|China}} Guangdong, China, 1985{{cite web |title=Hawaii's Sister-States|publisher=State of Hawai{{okina}}i|url=https://invest.hawaii.gov/international/sister-states/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201016200107/https://invest.hawaii.gov/international/sister-states/|archive-date=October 16, 2020}}
• {{Flagicon|China}} Hainan, China, 1992
• {{Flagicon|Jeju}} Jeju, South Korea, 1986
• {{Flagicon|Taiwan}} Taiwan, Republic of China, 1993
• {{Flagicon|Cebu}} Cebu, Philippines, 1996
• {{Flagicon|Isabela}} Isabela, Philippines, 2006
• {{Flagicon|Pangasinan}} Pangasinan, Philippines, 2002
• {{Flagicon|Ilocos Sur}} Ilocos Sur, Philippines, 1985
• {{Flagicon|Ilocos Norte}} Ilocos Norte, Philippines, 2005
• {{Flagicon image|Flag_of_Rabat_Sale_province.svg}} Rabat-Salé-Zemmour-Zaër, Morocco, 2011
• {{Flagicon|Azores}} Azores Islands, Portugal, 1982
• {{Flagicon|Bali}} Bali, Indonesia, 2014
• {{Flagicon image|Flag of Goa.svg}} Goa, India, 2018

{{Portal|Hawaii|United States|Islands}}

• Index of Hawaii-related articles
• List of cemeteries in Hawaii
• Outline of Hawaii
• USS Hawaii, two ships

{{Clear}}

{{notelist}}

{{reflist|refs=

{{cite web|url=http://www.culturalsurvival.org/ourpublications/csq/article/hawaii-and-united-nations|title=Hawaiʻi and the United Nations|website=Cultural Survival|date=April 2, 2010 |access-date=October 20, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151008170705/http://www.culturalsurvival.org/ourpublications/csq/article/hawaii-and-united-nations|archive-date=October 8, 2015|url-status=live}}

{{cite journal|url=https://hawaii.academia.edu/UmiPerkins/Papers/1061013/Maori_and_Native_Hawaiian_Education|title=Maori and Native Hawaiian Education|author=Umi Perkins|journal=Fulbright.org.nz|access-date=December 3, 2017|archive-date=September 21, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200921094012/https://www.academia.edu/1016384/Maori_and_Native_Hawaiian_Education|url-status=live}}

{{Cite web|url=https://hawaiiankingdom.org/sai-obama.shtml|title=Hawaiian Kingdom—David Keanu Sai v. Barack Obama, et al|website=hawaiiankingdom.org|access-date=October 28, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191028172751/https://hawaiiankingdom.org/sai-obama.shtml|archive-date=October 28, 2019|url-status=live}}

}}

{{Further|History of Hawaii#Bibliography}}

• Beechert, Edward D. Working in Hawaii: A Labor History (University of Hawaii Press, 1985).
• {{cite book|url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=pKBhBxgKxs8C}}|title=The Gifts of Civilization: Germs and Genocide in Hawai?i|last=Bushnell|first=Oswald A.|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|year=1993|isbn=978-0-8248-1457-1}}
• Kuykendall, Ralph S. A History of Hawaii (Macmillan, 1926) [https://books.google.com/books?id=W7Nb1uj0SLgC&dq=history++HAWAII&pg=PP16 online].
• Russ Jr., William Adam (1961) The Hawaiian Republic (1894–98) and Its Struggle to Win Annexation. Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania: Susquehanna University Press.
• Schmitt, Robert C. Historical Statistics of Hawaii. (University Press of Hawaii, 1977).
• Schmitt, Robert C. "Religious statistics of Hawaii, 1825–1972". Hawaiian Journal of History (1973), vol. 7, pp 41–47.
• Schmitt, Robert C. Demographic Statistics of Hawaii. (University of Hawaii Press, 2021).
• Tabrah, Ruth M. Hawaii: a history (WW Norton & Company, 1984).

• Cooperm, Jeanne, and Natalie Schack. Frommer's Hawaii (2022) [https://www.amazon.com/Frommers-Hawaii-Complete-Guides-Martha/dp/1628875070/ excerpt]
• Doughty, Andrew. Hawaii the Big Island Revealed: The Ultimate Guidebook (2021) [https://www.amazon.com/Hawaii-Big-Island-Revealed-Guidebook/dp/1949678105/ excerpt]
• FODOR. Fodor's Essential Hawaii (2020) [https://www.amazon.com/Fodors-Essential-Hawaii-Full-color-Travel/dp/1640973168/ excerpt]

{{Sister project links|voy=Hawaii}}

• {{Official website|1=http://portal.ehawaii.gov/index.html}}
• [https://guides.loc.gov/hawaii-state-guide Hawaii State Guide from the Library of Congress]
• [https://data.ers.usda.gov/reports.aspx?StateFIPS=15&StateName=Hawaii&ID=17854 Hawai{{okina}}i State Fact Sheet] from the U.S. Department of Agriculture
• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20101104233304/https://www.usgs.gov/state/state.asp?State=HI USGS real-time, geographic, and other scientific resources of Hawaii]}}
• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20080609213401/http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/state/state_energy_profiles.cfm?sid=HI Energy Data & Statistics for Hawaii]}}
• [https://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/3000/3510/image05292003_lrg.jpg Satellite image of Hawaiian Islands] at NASA's Earth Observatory
• [https://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/research/online-documents/hawaii-statehood Documents relating to Hawaii Statehood, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library]
• [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/opinion/21theroux.html Happily a State, Forever an Island] by The New York Times
• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20101103095527/http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/50681/hawaii-then-and-now "Hawai{{okina}}i Then and Now"]}}—slideshow by Life magazine (Archived from [http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/50681/hawaii-then-and-now the original] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101103095527/http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/50681/hawaii-then-and-now |date=November 3, 2010}} on November 3, 2010)
• {{osmrelation-inline|166563}}
• [https://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/coll/110.html Hawaiian Imprint Collection] From the [https://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/ Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress]

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