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Lawai, HI

This is a small community in a single neighborhood. As throughout the site, some neighborhood-level data are reserved for subscribers.





Overview


Lawai 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 2,578 people and just one neighborhood, Lawai is the 46th largest community in Hawaii.

Housing costs in Lawai are among some of the highest in the nation, although real estate prices here don't compare to real estate prices in the most expensive communities in Hawaii.

Occupations and Workforce

Unlike some towns, Lawai isn’t mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in Lawai are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Lawai is a town of service providers, professionals, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Lawai who work in food service (11.85%), business and financial occupations (8.38%), and sales jobs (7.75%).

Of important note, Lawai is also a town of artists. Lawai has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Lawai’s character.

A relatively large number of people in Lawai telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 16.60% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. 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.

Setting & Lifestyle

Lawai 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. Such areas are often places that visitors and locals go for waterfront activities or taking in the scenery.

Despite being a small town, Lawai has a lot of people using the bus to get to and from work every day. Most of these people on the bus are using it to get to good jobs in other cities.

Demographics

The citizens of Lawai are very well educated compared to the average community in the nation: 34.95% of adults in Lawai have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.

The per capita income in Lawai in 2022 was $34,742, 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 $138,968 for a family of four. However, Lawai contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Lawai is an extremely ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Lawai home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Lawai residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Lawai also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 21.36% of the town’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Lawai include Italian, English, German, Portuguese, and Irish.

The most common language spoken in Lawai is English. Other important languages spoken here include Pacific Island languages and Spanish.

Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics

The way a neighborhood looks and feels when you walk or drive around it, from its setting, its buildings, and its flavor, can make all the difference. This neighborhood has some really cool things about the way it looks and feels as revealed by NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research. This might include anything from the housing stock to the types of households living here to how people get around.

Real Estate

is a neighborhood that is on the ocean, a bay, or inlet. Many times, such places have amenities that bring locals and visitors to the waterfront for recreational activities or to check out the scenery. In some densely populated areas that are less financially well-off, the neighborhood waterfront can be relatively industrial and less open to recreation. 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.

Occupations

From major sales accounts to fast-food workers, sales and service employees are often the backbone of the local economy. In the neighborhood, they truly stand out. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis identifies this neighborhood as having a higher percentage of sales and service workers than 95.4% of all American neighborhoods.

People

If you're nearing retirement age, or in retirement, the is an excellent choice for you to consider for top-quality retirement living. This neighborhood is rated by NeighborhoodScout as among the top 7.8% of retiree-friendly neighborhoods in Hawaii, combining peace and quiet, safety from crime, and offering diverse housing options from which retirees can choose. Maybe it's because of these amenities that a large proportion of the residents here are college educated seniors, mixed with other age groups. For these and other reasons, NeighborhoodScout identifies this neighborhood as a top-notch place to consider if you are thinking of or planning to retire in Hawaii.

Diversity

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, 7.8% of this neighborhood's residents have Portuguese ancestry.

is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 2.3% 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 99.2% of the neighborhoods in America.

The Neighbors

How wealthy a neighborhood is, from very wealthy, to middle income, to low income is very formative with regard to the personality and character of a neighborhood. Equally important is the rate of people, particularly children, who live below the federal poverty line. In some wealthy gated communities, the areas immediately surrounding can have high rates of childhood poverty, which indicates other social issues. NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals both aspects of income and poverty for this neighborhood.

The neighbors in the neighborhood in Lawai are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 60.6% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 2.2% of the children seventeen and under living in this neighborhood are living below the federal poverty line, which is a lower rate of childhood poverty than is found in 74.4% of America'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, 38.4% of the working population is employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is executive, management, and professional occupations, with 34.3% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (16.0%), and 10.5% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.

Languages

The languages spoken by people in this neighborhood are diverse. These are tabulated as the languages people preferentially speak when they are at home with their families. The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 88.0% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Italian, Japanese and Spanish.

Ethnicity / Ancestry

Culture is the shared learned behavior of peoples. Undeniably, different ethnicities and ancestries have different cultural traditions, and as a result, neighborhoods with concentrations of residents of one or another ethnicities or ancestries will express those cultures. It is what makes the North End in Boston so fun to visit for the Italian restaurants, bakeries, culture, and charm, and similarly, why people enjoy visiting Chinatown in San Francisco.

In the neighborhood in Lawai, HI, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Asian (22.4%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (9.5%), and residents who report Portuguese roots (7.8%), and some of the residents are also of Italian ancestry (7.7%), along with some German ancestry residents (7.1%), among others.

Getting to Work

Even if your neighborhood is walkable, you may still have to drive to your place of work. Some neighborhoods are located where many can get to work in just a few minutes, while others are located such that most residents have a long and arduous commute. The greatest number of commuters in neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (43.5% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.

Here most residents (76.3%) 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 (10.6%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.


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