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Place dossier plate
SheetHI-WAHIAWA-HI · Wahiawa, HI 17,515 pop · income 68th pct
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Wahiawa
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Wahiawa on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
McKeesport · lowest
31,854
McKeesport · lowest
31,854 median HH income
22.2% of the leader · rank #1
Escalon · near
86,875
Escalon · near
86,875 median HH income
60.6% of the leader · rank #2
Nunn · near
86,875
Nunn · near
86,875 median HH income
60.6% of the leader · rank #3
Wahiawa · this city
86,883
Wahiawa · this city
86,883 median HH income
60.6% of the leader · rank #4
Spring · near
86,888
Spring · near
86,888 median HH income
60.6% of the leader · rank #5
Pleasant Hill · near
86,890
Pleasant Hill · near
86,890 median HH income
60.6% of the leader · rank #6
Ocean Pointe · highest
143,394
Ocean Pointe · highest
143,394 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Wahiawa on ACS population and median household income
. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 17,515.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Wahiawa lands in the 68th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
68th
percentile, household income
93rd
percentile, home value
99th
percentile, median rent
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Wahiawa, HI
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 17,515 residents in Wahiawa, a small town within Hawaii. Median household income here is $86,883 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 16.0%. Home values in Wahiawa run a median of $716,800, and the median resident age is 39.8 years. 23.9% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 52.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 11 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
Hawaii carries a cost-of-living premium: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Hawaii scores 110.0 (Well Above Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $2,433 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $280 across Hawaii, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Commute times here average 31.4 minutes, with 64.2% driving alone and 5.4% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 75.0 out of 100 (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Wahiawa's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from schools and households to comparison shortlist to work and mobility to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Wahiawa, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Wahiawa?
The NCES join finds 11 public schools within the city match. 23.9% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
Which cities make useful reference points for Wahiawa?
Within Hawaii, the closest population matches are Schofield Barracks (16,755 residents, $74,695 income); Ocean Pointe (16,276 residents, $143,394 income); Wailuku (15,754 residents, $93,958 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Streetsboro, OH (17,514 residents); Spanish Springs, NV (17,512 residents); McKeesport, PA (17,520 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching.
What does the journey to work look like in Wahiawa?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 64.2%. The reported mean trip to work is 31.4 minutes.
How far does income reach against housing in Wahiawa?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 8.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 16.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
Above median income · poverty 16.0% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.0 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, Hawaii average
F
City profile score · Wahiawa, HI
37/100
4 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Household income B-
$86,883
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share D
23.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
16.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Cost of living F
110.0 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Wahiawa profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 66/100 (B-) · $86,883
Bachelor's+ share: 46/100 (D) · 23.9%
Poverty rate: 21/100 (F) · 16.0%
Cost of living: 8/100 (F) · 110.0 index
How does Wahiawa compare to other US cities?
Wahiawa measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income68% higher than other cities
Home value93% pricier than other cities
Median rent99% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Wahiawa against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Hawaii only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Hawaii-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Wahiawa near the bottom of Hawaii's cities
Among the 160 Hawaii cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Wahiawa ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Wahiawa only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#88 of 155
43rd percentile in Hawaii
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 160
0th percentile in Hawaii
Median Home Value
#80 of 150
47th percentile in Hawaii
Poverty Rate
#25 of 160
84th percentile in Hawaii
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#111 of 160
30th percentile in Hawaii
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Hawaii only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
68th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Wahiawa's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$716,8007th percentilemore affordable than 7% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Wahiawa's home-value-to-income ratio: 8.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#15,105 of 15,516
More affordable than 3% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,210 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 8.3×, Wahiawa sits in the pressured band:
national rank #15,105 of 15,516 and #3,210 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median, a comparison flag, not a verdict on any household.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$86,883Wahiawa, HI median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Wahiawa, HI median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Wahiawa, HI.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)23.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)16.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)52.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
17,515
Median Income
$86,883
Median Home Value
$716,800
Median Age
39.8
Poverty Rate
16.0%
Labor force participation
52.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
23.9%
Schools
Total Schools
11
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
31.4 minutes
Drive Alone
64.2%
Carpool
18.6%
Public Transit
6.4%
Walk
3.4%
Work from Home
5.4%
Other
2.0%
Based on 7,580 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Hawaii statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $280
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Hawaii at $280 (electricity about $220 , water and sewer about $60 ).
These are Hawaii statewide averages, not a meter reading for Wahiawa. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Hawaii's BEA cost-of-living index is 110.0 (Well Above Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Wahiawa is $2,433/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Hawaii statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 75.0 / 100 (High).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Hawaii statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Wahiawa sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Wahiawa compares to similar-size Hawaii cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, NCES CCD, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.