About Hawaii

Cities and important locations

The main metropolis, Honolulu
Honolulu , was chosen by the King Kamehameha III as capital of its kingdom, thanks to its natural port, currently the port of Honolulu.

The capital, Honolulu, is situated in the southeastern coast of the island of Oahu.  Other notable cities in Hawaii are :Kaneohe, Kailua
View from the Pali Lookout, Pearl City, Kahului
Polynesian Cultural Center Lei Greeting, Kailua-, Pearl City, Kona
Chinaman's Hat, Kihei and , Pearl City, Lihue
Arizona Memorial from Above.

Economy

The economy of Hawaii is based in tourism. It possesses an important hotel infrastructure. Previously the economy was centered in tropical fruit plantations
Dole Pineapple Plantation and military activities. Over time this has changed and now is recognized as a tourist center.

The Hawaiian currency is the dollar.

Demography

Presently the state of Hawaii counts on a population of 1,285,498 people, of which [1]: 39.9% are Asians; 24.6% are Caucasian (European or descendants of Europeans and of next zones to Europe); 7.8% are "Latin American" or "Hispanic"; 2.2% are of African origins. Hawaii has the largest percentage of Asians in the United States. The greater ethnic groups of Hawaii are from their ancestors: Japanese (16.7%), Philippine (14.1%), Chinese (6.2%), German (7.2%), native Hawaiian (6.6%), and Portuguese (5.2%).

Religion

The traditional culture is called wisdom Huna or Aloha.

The people of Hawaii belong to the following religions:

Christianity - 68%; Protestantism - 42%; Baptist Church - 2%; Methodism - 2%; Other protestant confessions - 38%; Catholic Church - 24%; Church of Mormon - 2%; Buddhism - 9%; other religions - 5%; without religion - 18%

Education

Hawaii is currently the only state of the union that possesses a unified educational system for the whole state. A composed educational meeting of fourteen members - of which thirteen are chosen for a period of four years and the last one is a student representative without the right to vote- is in charge of decisions. This meeting is responsible for establishing the educational politics for the state and to name a school superintendent for the state, who supervises the operation of the Department of Education of the state. This department is divided into seven districts, of which four correspond to Oahu and the remaining ones for each county.

Hawaii has more students in independent and private secondary schools than any another state in the US. The independent schools as by contract (charter schools) can choose their students, while public schools must admit all in their district

Transportation

Hawaii possesses 4 interstate freeways (H-1, H-2, H-3 and H-201), all in Oahu, and each ends with a military base
Pearl Harbor (except the H-201, which connects two points of the H-1). There is a system of interstate highways that surrounds the other main islands besides Oahu. The trip can turn out to be slow, since the highways are straght and sinuous. Traveling between islands can only be done by airplane
Island Air Airplane or in private ship, which can be inpractical for local residents. The business 'Hawaii Superferry' recently connected the islands by means of a service of ferries that is also capable to transport vehicles. It entered into operation in 2007 and currently covers routes from Oahu to Maui. The route from Oahu to the Big Island is predicted for 2009.

Miscellaneous

An interesting annotation is the origin of the term 'wiki', that the name stems from the Hawaiian name given to the bus that carries the passengers of an airplane to the air terminal: 'Wikiwiki Bus', which simply signifies 'fast bus', (that is to say that 'wiki' signifies 'fast'). Of course, it is the Hawaiian pronunciation of the English word "quick".

> back to Top
> back to the Information Guide