Hawaii

The first inhabitants of Hawaii may have reached the islands as early as 300 CE from the Marquesas Islands; contact with and settlement by Tahitians began in the 9th century CE.⁠[1]

The Native Hawaiian population, about 300,000 at the time of European contact, had fallen to fewer than 40,000 by the 1890s.⁠[2]

The British navigator James Cook landed at Waimea, Kauai, on January 20, 1778, and named the group the Sandwich Islands. The following year he was killed in an affray with Hawaiians at Kealakekua Bay.⁠[1][3]

By 1810 Kamehameha I had conquered the other rulers and united the islands; he and his descendants then ruled Hawaii for almost a hundred years.⁠[2]

In 1820 the first of 15 companies of New England missionaries arrived in Hawaii; the Reverend Hiram Bingham and his fellow missionaries arrived in Kailua.⁠[1][4]

U.S. missionaries set up Hawaii’s first schools in the early 19th century, and in the 1840s the government of Hawaii took over the school system.⁠[2]

In 1840 foreign advisers urged a written constitution upon King Kamehameha III, and the Great Mahele, or division of lands, of 1848 guaranteed private ownership of property.⁠[1]

In 1866, as leprosy spread rapidly among the Hawaiian population, more than 100 patients were forcibly shipped to Kalaupapa on Molokai; by 1890 the settlement had more than 1,000 residents.⁠[4]

Hawaii and the United States signed the Reciprocity Treaty in 1875; when it was renewed in 1887, the United States received exclusive rights to enter and establish a naval base at Pearl Harbor. In the same year, King Kalākaua was forced to accept the “Bayonet Constitution,” which severely limited his powers.⁠[1]

Hawaii’s agricultural economy was long based largely on sugar and pineapples, and to supply plantation labor, immigration was encouraged and field hands were brought from China, Japan, Portugal and the Philippines.⁠[2]

King Kalākaua built ʻIolani Palace in 1882 and lived there until his death in 1891.⁠[2]

In 1893, after Queen Liliʻuokalani sought to restore the powers of the monarchy, a “Committee of Safety” made up mostly of American residents seized power with the help of a company of U.S. Marines from the USS Boston, overthrowing the monarchy.⁠[1][2]

The new rulers established a republic in 1894, with Sanford Ballard Dole as president.⁠[2]

In 1898 the Republic of Hawaii and the United States agreed on annexation.⁠[3]

On December 19, 1898, Liliʻuokalani wrote to the U.S. House of Representatives protesting the U.S. assertion of ownership of Hawaii.⁠[5]

In 1900 Hawaii became a U.S. territory. On May 4 of that year President William McKinley nominated Sanford B. Dole as governor of the Territory of Hawaii.⁠[3][5]

As a U.S. territory, Hawaii until 1940 was distinguished by a rapid growth in population and the development of a plantation economy.⁠[1]

In 1903 the territorial legislature asked Congress to grant Hawaii statehood. On February 11, 1919, the first Hawaii statehood bill was introduced in the U.S. House but soon died in committee.⁠[6][7]

That first statehood bill was submitted to Congress by Delegate Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole.⁠[6]

In May 1935 Delegate Samuel Wilder King presented a statehood bill to the House of Representatives; between 1935 and 1958, Congress held twenty statehood hearings.⁠[6]

By 1940 the territorial legislature had approved a plebiscite on statehood, in which two of every three voters supported it; the House passed statehood bills in 1947, 1950 and 1953, but none passed both chambers.⁠[6]

After World War II, returning Japanese American veterans, lauded for their bravery, helped change attitudes toward statehood, and newly elected Japanese American politicians such as Daniel Inouye supported the effort.⁠[6]

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, brought the United States into World War II.⁠[1]

Martial law was imposed after the attack, and civil government was not restored until October 1944; the martial law was later found to be unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.⁠[2]

Hawaii’s constitutional convention met in 1950, and the state constitution, patterned after the U.S. Constitution, was ratified by voters in a general election on November 7, 1950.⁠[2]

S. 50, a bill to provide for the admission of the State of Hawaii into the Union, is dated March 11, 1959; on March 12, 1959, Congress voted to admit Hawaii as a state. The bill passed the House 323 to 89 and the Senate 76 to 15.⁠[7][2][6]

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the act into law on March 18, 1959; it dissolved the territorial government and created the new state.⁠[8][9]

On June 27, 1959, Hawaii’s voters approved immediate statehood in a referendum, by a margin of about 17 to 1.⁠[2][6]

On that day President Eisenhower signed Proclamation No. 3309, officially admitting Hawaii as a state.⁠[8]

Later that year United AirlinesUnited AirlinesUnited Airlines is an airline based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is wholly owned by the Nasdaq-listed United Airlines Holdings, Inc. and is a member of Star Alliance. One of its founding carriers, Varney Air Lines, made its first flight in 1926, and the company merged with Continental Airlines in 2010.Open the full entry began flying Douglas DC-8 aircraft between Hawaii and the West Coast.⁠[9]

In 1961 Hawaii became the first state to adopt a statewide land-use program.⁠[2]

Legislative sessions were held at ʻIolani Palace from 1895 until the completion of the new State Capitol in 1969.⁠[2]

Amendments proposed by the 1978 constitutional convention were approved by voters on November 7, 1978, and some provisions of the constitution, including the state flag provision, were renumbered; in the same year Hawaiian was restored as an official language.⁠[10][4]

On November 23, 1993, Congress’s joint resolution S.J. Res. 19 (Public Law 103-150) was approved. Marking the 100th anniversary of the January 17, 1893, overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, it acknowledged that the event resulted in the suppression of the inherent sovereignty of Native Hawaiians and apologized to Native Hawaiians on behalf of the people of the United States for the overthrow.⁠[11]

In 2018 a series of eruptions of Kīlauea opened several fissures that cut across residential neighborhoods, releasing lava and sulfur dioxide; one explosive eruption sent volcanic ash some 30,000 feet (9,100 meters) into the air.⁠[2]

The U.S. Census Bureau delivered the 2020 Census apportionment results to the President on April 26, 2021. Hawaii was apportioned 2 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, the same as after the 2010 Census, and accordingly has 4 electoral votes in the 2024 and 2028 presidential elections.⁠[12][13][14]

Wildfires broke out in Hawaii beginning on August 8, 2023. On August 10 a federal major disaster was declared for the state (DR-4724-HI), with an incident period of August 8 to September 30, 2023; individual and household assistance was made available in Maui County, and public assistance covered Hawaii and Maui counties. The federal preliminary damage assessment at the time of the declaration counted 400 residences destroyed.⁠[15][16]

The state legislature consists of a Senate and a House of Representatives: the Senate has 25 members serving staggered four-year terms, presided over by the Senate President, and the House has 51 members elected every two years, presided over by the Speaker.⁠[17]

The legislature meets in a two-year part-time session that begins in an odd-numbered year and ends in an even-numbered year; each year’s session opens on the third Wednesday in January and lasts 60 session days.⁠[18]

As of November 2026 the governor is Josh Green, who took office on December 5, 2022, as the ninth governor of Hawaiʻi. A family physician and emergency room doctor, he served in the state House of Representatives from 2004 to 2008 and the state Senate from 2008 to 2018, and was elected lieutenant governor in 2018.⁠[19][20]

A governor is limited to two consecutive terms. Hawaii is the only state with only two levels of government, state and county.⁠[2]

The state has four counties, the City and County of Honolulu, the County of Maui, the County of Hawaiʻi and the County of Kauaʻi, plus the quasi-county of Kalawao; each county has an elected mayor and an elected council.⁠[21]

Hawaii is a group of volcanic islands in the central Pacific Ocean, 2,397 miles (3,857 km) west of San Francisco and 5,293 miles (8,516 km) east of Manila.⁠[22]

The state consists of 8 major islands and 124 islets forming a crescent about 1,500 miles (2,400 km) long; the major islands are Niʻihau, Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Maui and the island of Hawaii. The islands formed as the Pacific Plate moved over a hotspot.⁠[22]

In Census Bureau 2010 measurements, the state has a total area of 10,932 square miles (28,313 km²), of which 6,423 square miles (16,635 km²) is land and 4,509 square miles (11,678 km²) is water, including 4,458 square miles of territorial water.⁠[23]

The highest point is Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii at 13,796 feet (4,205 m); Mauna Loa rises to 13,678 feet (4,169 m). The terrain slopes steeply and many streams are intermittent; Kauaʻi has numerous perennial streams, the largest being the Wailua River.⁠[22]

The average annual temperature in the lowlands is about 75 °F (24 °C). Mount Waiʻaleʻale on Kauaʻi receives about 450 inches (1,150 cm) of rain in an average year, while Kawaihae on the island of Hawaii receives about 9 inches (23 cm). The state uses Hawaiian time (GMT − 10 hours).⁠[2][24]

The Census Bureau estimated the population at 1,432,820 on July 1, 2025 (Vintage 2025); population density in 2020 was 226.6 people per square mile.⁠[25]

American Community Survey data for 2020–2024 show that 17.9% of residents were foreign born, 24.7% of those aged 5 and over spoke a language other than English at home, 36.1% of those aged 25 and over held a bachelor’s degree or higher, and median household income was $100,389 (in 2024 dollars).⁠[25]

Preliminary data released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis on March 28, 2025, put Hawaii’s 2024 current-dollar GDP at $115,627 million, with real GDP growth of 1.9%.⁠[26]

Tourism is Hawaii’s most valuable industry; federal defense spending is another important source of income, and more than 100,000 U.S. military personnel and their families are stationed in or have their home port in Hawaii.⁠[2]

Sugar and pineapple production declined in the late 20th century as companies moved to lower-cost places, while exports of macadamia nuts, papayas and other specialties remain valuable.⁠[2]

Hawaii’s economy is diversified, and its research in oceanography, geophysics, astronomy, satellite communications and biomedicine is of national and international importance; telescopes atop Mauna Kea make it a world astronomy center. The state is strategically important to U.S. global defense and is a transportation hub for the Pacific basin.⁠[22][3]

The University of Hawaii was founded in 1907; its main campus is in Honolulu, with four-year branch campuses in Hilo and West Oʻahu and seven two-year community colleges. Public schools are administered by the State Board of Education.⁠[2]

Hawaii’s festivals reflect its diverse heritage: Chinese New Year falls in late January or early February and Obon runs from June to early September, while the weeklong Merrie Monarch Festival on the island of Hawaii, honoring King Kalākaua, begins on Easter Sunday.⁠[2]

The name is thought to derive from Hawaiki, the former name of Raiatea, the ancestral home of the Polynesians. State law declares Hawaiian the native language of Hawaii and allows its use on all state emblems and symbols.⁠[22][27]

Joint Resolution 1 of 1959 designated “The Aloha State” as the official popular name; the state motto, “Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono,” translated as “The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness,” was set by Joint Resolution 4 of 1959. The state seal was adopted in 1959.⁠[27][28]

The state constitution provides that the Hawaiian flag is the flag of the State. It has eight horizontal stripes alternating white, red and blue from the top, with a “jack” in the upper hoist corner showing red and white crosses on a blue field. Act 215, approved on June 25, 1990, wrote the flag’s description and display rules into statute and found that the flag descends from the flag adopted by Kamehameha I and used on his ships, remaining virtually the same through the kingdom, provisional government, republic, territory and state.⁠[10][27][29]

The state bird is the nēnē, or Hawaiian goose (Branta sandwicensis), and the state flower is the native yellow hibiscus (Hibiscus brackenridgei), also called pua aloalo or maʻo hau hele, both designated by statute in 1988; the state tree is the kukui, or candlenut (Aleurites moluccana), designated in 1959; and the state song is “Hawaiʻi Ponoʻi,” designated in 1967.⁠[27]

Hawaii.gov: Official website: https://portal.ehawaii.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[30]

Governor Josh Green, M.D.: Official website: https://governor.hawaii.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[20]

Hawaii State Legislature: Official website: https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[31][18]