9 Troubling Facts About Hawaii You Would Be Better Off Not Knowing (2024)

Most of Hawaii’s food is imported from the mainland translating to overwhelming grocery bills; Hawaii residents pay almost double the national average for a gallon of milk. Don’t even get us started with the outrageous cost of housing here. These issues make it hard to pull out ahead in the Hawaiian economy.

For example, the average computer programmer living in Hawaii had an annual salary of $63,570 in 2013, less than California, Massachusetts, New York and Washington, where individuals with similar careers made between $82,750 and $111,320 annually. Same goes for teachers, police officers, and pediatricians. These wide income disparities reflect some of the most common social issues in Hawaii.

Because we totally do, and it is quite the shock when receiving your first island electric bill. In 2010, Hawaii had the highest electricity costs in the nation, perhaps due to the fact that petroleum fuels approximately 76 percent of the islands’ electrical generators. Hawaii social issues come at you from all sides.

With streets crumbling with potholes and seemingly endless road closures, the average Honolulu resident sits in more traffic than anyone on the mainland – except for L.A. residents. The state is also ranked dead last in highway conditions and cost-effectiveness. This is one problem in Hawaii we could definitely do without.

Hawaii has the third largest homeless population per capita in the country; an estimated 487 out of every 100,000 residents are homeless, according to Movoto. Since the year 2000, the homeless population in Hawaii has increased by 61 percent, and while many once lived on the beaches 24/7, these individuals have since been driven into local neighborhoods, especially on Oahu. This is a pressing social issue in Hawaii, as it affects many residents in the high population areas.

Hawaii landfills are nearly full, and that means the government has to figure out where to put all of our garbage – many are debating whether we should create a new landfill on Oahu’s leeward coast, or ship the waste to the mainland. While Oahu is home to a waste-to-energy plant, it can’t possibly take care of all the islands’ garbage. This Hawaii problem needs a solution sooner rather than later.

The Hawaiian Islands have violent crime rates that are lower than the national averages, but property crime is still a very real problem Hawaii residents must face. According to Sperling’s Best Places, Hawaii’s average is 45 out of 100, and the national average is 43.5; these crimes include burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. While we’d far prefer property crime over violent crime, we’d rather not have any crime at all.

While the islands have lower than average rates of violent crimes, more than half of all convictions in Hawaii are drug-related, compared to just 41 percent nationwide. I’m not sure if that means Hawaii just has less other crime, or there is a serious drug problem taking over the islands. Besides marijuana, methamphetamine is the most commonly used illegal drug in Hawaii. This Hawaii social issue needs help.

As the most isolated population center on the planet, Hawaii has one of the highest rates of endinism – species that exist nowhere else – in the world. And because we have so many unique species of plants and animals, Hawaii is often considered the "endangered species capital of the world." This Hawaii social issue is a devastating one, because there is no coming back from extinction.