Maui County’s population grew by 6.4 percent over the last decade to 164,754, according to 2020 census data released Thursday. The total population for Hawaii in 2020 was 1,455,271. U.S. CENSUS BUREAU graphics

Maui County’s population increased by 6.4 percent over the last decade to 164,754 in 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released long-awaited 2020 data on Thursday.

The total population for Hawaii in 2020 was 1,455,271 — Oahu’s population was 1,016,508, Hawaii island followed at 200,629 and Kauai was at 73,298. This is an average 7 percent increase (94,970 people) in the state’s population over the past decade.

As a state, Hawaii ranked No. 1 in the country with the most diverse population, census data showed. The state’s diversity index leads the rest of the nation at 76 percent, meaning that the chance that two people chosen at random will be from different racial or ethnic groups is very likely. California (69.7 percent) and Nevada (68.8 percent) followed as the second and third most diverse states. Maine had the lowest diversity index at 18.5 percent.

Using the same diversity index calculation for the past 10 years, the probability that two people will be from different racial or ethnic groups has increased to 61.1 percent nationally in 2020 from 54.9 percent in 2010.

Hawaii’s score is slightly higher than 2010, when it was at 75.1 percent.

Hawaii ranked No. 1 in the country with the most diverse population, according to 2020 census data released Thursday. The state’s diversity index leads the rest of the nation at 76 percent, meaning that the chance that two people chosen at random will be from different racial or ethnic groups is very likely.

The largest portion of the state’s population is solely Asian (not Hispanic or Latino) at 36.5 percent, solely white at 21.6 percent, followed by residents who identify as two or more races at 20.1 percent. Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander residents followed at 10.2 percent of the population while Hispanic and Latino residents make up 9.5 percent. Solely Black or African American residents make up 1.5 percent of Hawaii’s population, while 0.4 percent identified as “some other race” and 0.2 percent of the population said they were American Indian or Alaska Native.

These once-a-decade results also showed a small shift in how people identify their race and ethnicity. Census Bureau experts say these changes are partially due to the “improvements in the design of the race and ethnicity questions, processing and coding.”

For example, the percentage of all people in America who reported multiple races changed more than all of the single-race groups, increasing from 2.9 percent of the population (9 million people) in 2010 to 10.2 percent of the population (33.8 million people) in 2020.

Recent data shows that the solely Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander population grew by 27.8 percent between 2010 and 2020. However, the amount of Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders who also identify with another race group, such as Asian or white, grew faster — a 30.8 percent increase since 2010.

More than half of Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders identified with more than one race.

In total, those who identified as solely Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander or in combination with other races make up about 0.5 percent of the U.S. population (1.6 million people).

Other available statistics reflect that the majority of Hawaii’s population (79.4 percent) is 18 years old and above, which is on trend with the rest of the nation.

About 78.7 percent of people in Maui County, specifically, are over the age of 18, which is a 9 percent increase since 2010. The 18-and-under population has dropped 2.2 percent over the past decade.

Additionally, the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday reported that there were 140,498,736 housing units in the U.S. in 2020, up 6.7 percent from the 2010 census.

“While the national number of housing units grew over the past decade, this was not uniform throughout the country,” Evan Brassell, chief of the Housing Statistics Branch in the Census Bureau’s Social, Economic and Housing Statistics Division, said in a news release. “Counties that composed some part of a metropolitan or micropolitan area saw increases of 3.8 percent, on average, while counties outside of these areas showed decreases of 3.9 percent on average.”

However, the total number of housing units between 2010 to 2020 grew an average of 8 percent in Hawaii, with Honolulu County skewing the average with a 10 percent change. Hawaii County saw a 7.7 percent increase while Maui County saw a 1.5 percent increase and Kauai County 1.2 percent.

In 2020, the counties had a combined total of 561,066 housing units with 490,267 of them occupied (87.4 percent); Maui County had 78.5 percent of its units occupied.

The county had among the highest housing unit vacancy rates (the percentage of all available units in a rental property) at 21.5 percent in 2020.

According to the demographic data map, 2.8 percent of Hawaii’s population, or 1.3 percent in Maui County, were living in “group quarters” last year.

Group quarters include places like college residence halls, residential treatment centers, skilled-nursing facilities, group homes, military barracks, correctional facilities and workers’ dormitories.

A breakdown shows that 0.5 percent of Maui County’s group quarters population includes those living in institutional quarters, like correctional facilities or nursing homes, while 0.9 percent were in noninstitutional spaces like student and military housing.

Although the total population of the U.S. increased by 22.7 million people since the 2010 census, this is the slowest decade rate of growth since the 1930s.

* Dakota Grossman can be reached at dgrossman@mauinews.com.

Maui County’s population grew by 6.4 percent over the last decade to 164,754, according to 2020 census data released Thursday. The total population for Hawaii in 2020 was 1,455,271. U.S. CENSUS BUREAU graphics Hawaii ranked No. 1 in the country with the most diverse population, according to 2020 census data released Thursday. The state’s diversity index leads the rest of the nation at 76 percent, meaning that the chance that two people chosen at random will be from different racial or ethnic groups is very likely.

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

The Maui News Maui County Department of Finance Director Scott Teruya was placed on administrative leave on last ...

Holy Innocents Episcopal Church, formerly on Front Street in Lahaina Town and destroyed by the fire, announced the ...

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7rq3UoqWer6NjsLC5jqecsKtfobykrctmpZ6vo2R%2FcX6QaGdxZ52Wwqp5wqisp6ypqHqxu8%2Buo5qsmaS7bq%2FLoqSbq12qvW7AzmalnpmiocZufZVuomg%3D