Sometimes people move because they want to. Sometimes people move because they feel they have to. A Honolulu Star-Advertiser article last month articulated the now-familiar story of families leaving Hawai`i, and then went touched on the specific human side of one Maui family’s efforts to stay put… at great cost.
When just looking at figures, the human element sometimes gets lost or ignored. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 67,257 residents moved from our islands between mid-2021 and mid-2022- at the height of the pandemic. During that same period, 56,209 people moved here from other states, so our net emigration was about 11,000 people. But who left, and who moved in? Those are vital questions that need further elucidation and dissection as we witness a changing of the literal face and nature of our state population.
Eight straight years of losing population has major implications for Hawai`i’s future. If local families uproot to find salvation and stability via affordable and more readily available housing, quality jobs, and a chance to build a retirement nest egg elsewhere, what do we lose? Not simply a family or tax payer, but possibly nā keiki o ka `aina, as different residents move here and (hopefully) acculturate, at some level.
A deeper dive into immigration/emigration figures might show that we’re losing many 25- to 45-year-olds (+ kids) and gaining many 60+ year-olds who can afford to and truly want to retire here, meaning we’ve got a morphing population base. The state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism (DBEDT) recently posted: “There were 31 more people moving out of Hawaii to another state than moving to Hawaii from another state” every day from July, 2022 – June, 2023.
Judge for yourself whether having fewer people reside here is a good thing, but also reflect on what this means for our state’s future, unique culture, tax base, worker pool, and ability to care for a growing kūpuna base. The social/cultural/lifestyle factors affected by the resident movement cannot be ignored and must be an integral part of housing/jobs/local style discussions. To ignore this reality is to be part of the unproductive “ainokea” or “whatevah” syndrome.
The clock is ticking; local airport turnstiles are clicking. Legislative and business action items must progress today regarding housing, jobs, and tax issues. Perhaps we’ll finally see an other-than-just-tourism economic engine start moving… before more of our local families gets moving.
Think about it…