Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Hispanics in the 2008 Election: Hawaii

Hawaii’s Hispanic population is the 38th largest in the nation. Approximately 100,000 Hispanics reside in Hawaii, less than 1% of all Hispanics in the United States. There are 60,000 eligible Hispanic voters in Hawaii, less than 1% of all U.S. Hispanic eligible voters.1 This fact sheet provides key demographic information on Latino eligible voters.2 It also contains data on other major groups of eligible voters in Hawaii, with comparative data for the U.S. All data are from the Census Bureau’s 2006 American Community Survey.3

Hispanics in Hawaii’s Eligible Voter Population

  • Hawaii’s population is 8% Hispanic, ranking its Hispanic share of the population 20th nationally. New Mexico ranks first with 45%.
  • Almost 7% of eligible voters in Hawaii are Latinos, the 12th largest Hispanic eligible voter population share nationally. New Mexico ranks first with 38%.
  • Almost 60% of Latinos in Hawaii are eligible to vote, ranking third nationwide in the share of the Hispanic population that is eligible to vote.

Characteristics of Eligible Voters

  • Hawaii’s Hispanic eligible voters are younger than all eligible voters in Hawaii—35% of Hispanic eligible voters in Hawaii are ages 18 to 29 versus 22% of all Hawaii eligible voters.

  • Latino eligible voters in Hawaii are less likely to be naturalized citizens than are all Hawaii eligible voters—6% versus 13%.
  • The proportion of Hispanic eligible voters in Hawaii who have attended college or earned at least a bachelor’s degree is lower than the proportion of all Hawaii eligible voters who have this level of education—44% of Hispanics versus 59% of all eligible voters in Hawaii.
  • Latino eligible voters in Hawaii are less likely to live in an owner-occupied home than all eligible voters in Hawaii—48% versus 64%.

Characteristics of Eligible Voters in Hawaii, by Race and Ethnicity

  • Asian eligible voters outnumber Latino eligible voters in Hawaii by a margin of nearly 6 to 1—60,000 Latinos compared with 364,000 Asian eligible voters.
  • Hispanic eligible voters are younger than all other groups of eligible voters in Hawaii—35% of Hispanic eligible voters are ages 18 to 29 compared with 22% of white, 14% of Asian, 24% of Native Hawaiian and 30% of multiracial eligible voters.
  • Hispanic eligible voters are less likely than all other groups of eligible voters in Hawaii to live in owner-occupied homes—48% versus 54% of white, 77% of Asian, 63% of Native Hawaiian and 61% of multiracial eligible voters.
  1. In this fact sheet, eligible voters are defined as U.S. citizens ages 18 and older. Eligible voters are not the same as registered voters. To cast a vote, in all states except North Dakota, an eligible voter must first register to vote.
  2. The terms “Hispanic” and “Latino” are used interchangeably. References to “white”, “Asian”, “Native Hawaiian” and “Multiracial” are to the non-Hispanic components of those populations.
  3. The specific data set used to derive estimates contained in this fact sheet are from the University of Minnesota’s Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) for the 2006 American Community Survey (1% sample). Information can be found on the following Website: http://usa.ipums.org/usa/. The estimates in this fact sheet are subject to sampling error. Also, estimates in this fact sheet will differ from estimates that may be published by the Census Bureau because of differences between the data used by the Census Bureau and the data it has released for public use. Further information on Census data and on sampling error in the data is available at http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Downloads/2006/AccuracyPUMS.pdf.
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