Kaunakakai is a very small coastal town (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of Hawaii. With a population of 3,419 people and just one neighborhood, Kaunakakai is the 38th largest community in Hawaii.
Unlike some towns where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Kaunakakai is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Kaunakakai is a town of service providers, professionals, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Kaunakakai who work in maintenance occupations (12.72%), healthcare suport services (11.30%), and healthcare (9.28%).
One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 10.56% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.
Kaunakakai is also nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Quite often, nautical areas such as these attract visitors and locals who come to enjoy the scenery and various waterfront activities.
Compared to the rest of the country, citizens of Kaunakakai spend much less time in their cars: on average, their commute to work is only 18.56 minutes. This also means that noise and pollution levels in the town are less than they would otherwise be.
The percentage of adults in Kaunakakai who are college-educated is close to the national average for all communities of 21.84%: 19.09% of the adults in Kaunakakai have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Kaunakakai in 2022 was $32,728, which is lower middle income relative to Hawaii, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $130,912 for a family of four. However, Kaunakakai contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Kaunakakai is an extremely ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Kaunakakai home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Kaunakakai residents report their race to be Native Hawaiian, followed by Asian. Kaunakakai also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 13.44% of the town’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Kaunakakai include German, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, and French.
The most common language spoken in Kaunakakai is English. Other important languages spoken here include Pacific Island languages and Japanese.
When you see a neighborhood for the first time, the most important thing is often the way it looks, like its homes and its setting. Some places look the same, but they only reveal their true character after living in them for a while because they contain a unique mix of occupational or cultural groups. This neighborhood is very unique in some important ways, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive exploration and analysis.
This neighborhood has wide open spaces, few people, and lots of space to stretch out. If you like locations that fit that description, you may like this neighborhood. Based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis, with only 36 people per square mile living here, this neighborhood is less crowded than 91.6% of America. Do you like a coastal setting? If so, this neighborhood may be to your liking. The neighborhood is on the ocean, a bay, or inlet. Often such coastal places have amenities and recreational activities on the waterfront that are attractive to residents and visitors alike. In addition to being coastal, is a very nautical neighborhood, meaning that it is somewhat historic, walkable, densely populated and on the water. This gives the neighborhood a very nautical feel, with some seaside and shipping feel, which some may really enjoy the sights and sounds of.
We Americans love our cars. Not only are they a necessity for most Americans due to the shape of our neighborhoods and the distances between where we live, work, shop, and go to school, but we also fancy them. As a result, most households in America have one, two, or three cars. But NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis shows that the neighborhood has a highly unusual pattern of car ownership. Residents of this neighborhood must really love automobiles. NeighborhoodScout's Analysis reveals that 35.6% of the households here have four, five, or more cars. That is more cars per household than in 96.4% of the neighborhoods in the nation.
Our research shows that more people carpool to work here in the (23.8%) than in 96.0% of the neighborhoods in America.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Portuguese ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 1.7% of this neighborhood's residents have Portuguese ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 1.1% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Japanese at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 97.7% of the neighborhoods in America.
There are two complementary measures for understanding the income of a neighborhood's residents: the average and the extremes. While a neighborhood may be relatively wealthy overall, it is equally important to understand the rate of people - particularly children - who are living at or below the federal poverty line, which is extremely low income. Some neighborhoods with a lower average income may actually have a lower childhood poverty rate than another with a higher average income, and this helps us understand the conditions and character of a neighborhood.
The neighbors in the neighborhood in Kaunakakai are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 50.0% of the neighborhoods in America. With 15.5% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 62.4% of U.S. neighborhoods.
What we choose to do for a living reflects who we are. Each neighborhood has a different mix of occupations represented, and together these tell you about the neighborhood and help you understand if this neighborhood may fit your lifestyle.
In the neighborhood, 33.2% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants, with 31.5% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (18.8%), and 16.1% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 81.4% of households.
Culture is shared learned behavior. We learn it from our parents, their parents, our houses of worship, and much of our culture – our learned behavior – comes from our ancestors. That is why ancestry and ethnicity can be so interesting and important to understand: places with concentrations of people of one or more ancestries often express those shared learned behaviors and this gives each neighborhood its own culture. Even different neighborhoods in the same city can have drastically different cultures.
In the neighborhood in Kaunakakai, HI, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Asian (10.3%). There are also a number of people of Mexican ancestry (5.8%), and residents who report Puerto Rican roots (4.0%), and some of the residents are also of German ancestry (2.2%), along with some Portuguese ancestry residents (1.7%), among others.
How you get to work – car, bus, train or other means – and how much of your day it takes to do so is a large quality of life and financial issue. Especially with gasoline prices rising and expected to continue doing so, the length and means of one's commute can be a financial burden. Some neighborhoods are physically located so that many residents have to drive in their own car, others are set up so many walk to work, or can take a train, bus, or bike. The greatest number of commuters in neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (48.7% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (57.9%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors to get to work (23.8%) and 5.8% of residents also hop out the door and walk to work for their daily commute. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.