How big is Hawaii?

One frequently asked question is “how big is Hawaii?” This question can be answered in two ways depending on whether or not one is referring to the island of Hawaii, also known as the Big Island, or the state of Hawaii which incorporates eight major islands.

The island of Hawaii or the Big Island is approximately 4,028 square miles with a population of roughly 186,700 people. These citizens are dancing with fate as this island is home to two of the worlds most active volcanoes. Although volcanic and foggy this island is extremely well-known for it’s rare and desirable Kona coffee, grown in the region known as Kona. Hawaii is the only state in the continental United States that produces coffee and they’re good at it.

The island of Oahu, in comparison to The Big Island, is much smaller in size stretching 44 miles long and 30 miles wide, and 112 miles around making it Hawaii’s third largest island. Oahu is home to Honolulu, the state capital and largest city in Hawaii. Although this island is much smaller than Hawaii’s Big Island, Oahu attracts 44% of all visitors to the islands. Waikiki is the major tourist destination on Oahu attracting an average of 72,000 visitors per day. Save up your dollars if you are planning to move or vacation to Honolulu because following Anchorage, Alaska, Honolulu is the second most expensive city in the United States.

Hawaii as the United States 50th state since 1959 is made up of eight major islands and 137 small islets. The state of Hawaii takes up 10,931 square feet and is essentially the most isolated areas on earth being over 2,000 miles from California, almost 4,000 miles from Japan, and 5,000 miles from China. Hawaii even runs on its’ own time zone known as Hawaiian Standard Time with no daylight savings time. Although isolated and divided, this state is the widest state in the continental U.S. when measured from east to west.

As of 2012, the population of Hawaii was 1.3 million and rising. One interesting fact about Hawaii’s population is that everyone is a minority, there is no majority race. The major ethnicities are Caucasian, Japanese-American, Filipino-American, Korean-American.

This state, created by underwater volcanic eruptions, home to some of the largest mountain peaks and left far into the blue Pacific is a place of big adventures and small town feelings.