How much money in your household?

Hawaii households make a lot of money. In fact, the Census Bureau says Hawaii was #4 in Median Household Income last year.

Is that good or bad?

As it is with most general statistics, it’s both. Maryland comes in at #1 with over $65,000 in median household income. Median is different than average. But why is Hawaii ranked so high?

The bottom five states include all those you would expect, because they’re somewhat impoverished states. Alabama, Oklahoma, Arkansas, West Virginia, Mississippi. Hawaii ranks just behind Connecticut and just ahead of Massachusetts.

These lies, damned lies, and statistics may not tell the true parts of another story, that of how many wage earners there are in a household, and how many jobs they hold.

Housing is more expensive in Hawaii than nearly any other state in the union. So is the general cost of living and pretty much anything and everything else except rice and pineapples. Hawaii’s households make more money because they need to, hence the low unemployment rate. Many householders work multiple jobs. Those jobs help to increase median household income and reduce unemployment.

Another interesting statistic would be a comparison of household income to the number of homeless in Hawaii.