HomeMy WebLinkAboutState of Hawaii, DBEDT, READ - Hawaii Migration Flows 2013-2017December 2019
Research and Economic Analysis Division
Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism
STATE OF HAWAII
HAWAII MIGRATION FLOWS: 2013-2017
i
This report was produced by the Research and Economic Analysis Division (READ) of the
Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism (DBEDT) under the guidance of Dr.
Eugene Tian, Division Head. The report was authored by Dr. Yang‐Seon Kim, Research and
Statistics Officer.
1
Executive Summary
This report provides a broad assessment of migrations that Hawaii experienced in the past
several years based on the 2013-2017 American Community Survey data. Overall moving
behaviors of Hawaii residents during the period and the characteristics of three types of migrants;
domestic in-migrants, domestic out-migrants, and international in-migrants were analyzed.
Migrants Among Hawaii Residents
During the 2013-2017 period, on average 5 percent of Hawaii residents over 1-year old (about
69,600 persons) were migrants who moved from out-of-state in the past 12 months; 3.9 percent
from the U.S. mainland and another 1.1 percent from abroad. These rates were higher than the
U.S. average of 2.3 percent and 0.7 percent. The mobility which was greater than the U.S.
average attributes partially to the large military population in Hawaii who subjected more
frequent relocation of residency.
While the in-migration rate, the percentage of those who moved to Hawaii in the past 12 months
among Hawaii residents, was not significantly different by gender, it exhibited clear differences
when compared by age, educational attainment, and employment status. About one in ten 18-34
aged persons in Hawaii migrated in the past 12 months either from the U.S. mainland or from
abroad. The in-migration rate was not particularly high among the elderly population (1.4
percent) indicating that retirement migration was not occurring at any significant scale in Hawaii.
More educated group included more migrants within them. Among people aged 25 and over in
Hawaii, 5.1 percent of those with some college education or a Bachelor’s degree were new
comers to the state in that year while the percentage was only 2.4 percent for those with a high
school diploma or less education.
Origin and Destination of Migrants
Sending and receiving more than 20 percent of domestic migrants to and from Hawaii, California
was both the top origin of in-migrants to Hawaii and top destination of out-migrants from
Hawaii. Many domestic out-migrants headed to states with geographic proximity, similar
climate, metro areas with possibly more job opportunities, or states with a large military base.
Of the estimated 15,500 annual international in-migrants to Hawaii during the 2013-2017 period,
61.5 percent came from Asia. By country, Japan and Philippines were two main countries of
origin for the international in-migrants to Hawaii. Philippines was the top origin of civilian
families while Japan was where many of both civilian and military families came from.
Characteristics of Migrants
Migrants had an age structure much younger than overall Hawaii residents, which was true for
both in- and out- migrants and true for both domestic and international migrants.
2
The young adult and prime-working age population in ages 18-34 was the largest age group
among migrants making up nearly half of domestic in and out migrants. The proportion among
migrants was twice as high as the proportion of overall Hawaii residents.
Since military personnel and their families move more frequently than other civilian families,
migrants included military related population much bigger than overall Hawaii residents. Active
duty military personnel composed 15.2 percent of domestic in-migrants, 9.8 percent of
international in-migrants, and 8.6 percent of domestic out-migrants. By comparison, they
composed less than 3 percent of the total Hawaii resident population aged 1 year and over.
Somehow, domestic in-migrants included more military related population than domestic out-
migrants did during the 2013-2017 period. While 32.6 percent of domestic in-migrants were
active duty military personnel or their families, the corresponding share for domestic out-
migrants was 19.4 percent. This asymmetry implied that the size of net domestic outflow was
bigger than commonly known if our interest was in the civilian family population only.
White-alone population made up 62.9 percent of domestic in-migrants reflecting the dominance
of White-alone population in the mainland. Interestingly, White-alone was the dominant race of
domestic out-migrants as well, composing 56.2 percent of total domestic out-migrants. Even
after excluding military personnel and their families who contained more White-alone
population, the race composed more than half of each domestic in- and out- migrants.
Similarly, a significant number of domestic out-migrants were born on the mainland. About 2 in
3 domestic out-migrants during the 2013-2017 period were mainland-born. Among those, 35
percent moved back to the state where they were born.
The age distribution of domestic out-migrants varied significantly by birthplace. About two third
of Hawaii-born out-migrants to the U.S. mainland were aged 24 or under. On the other hand,
this age group made up one third of the mainland-born, and one fifth of the foreign-born.
Compared to Hawaii residents, domestic migrants were more educated in general. Migrants
from abroad showed a different pattern that included more of each end of the education
spectrum: both the least-educated people and the most-educated people.
Compared to overall Hawaii residents, domestic migrants showed higher labor force
participation rates. However, their unemployment rate was also high especially among domestic
out-migrants. This is partially because the unemployed were more likely to move looking for a
job and partially because moving left the migrant unemployed temporarily after the moving.
Being measured in the number of weeks worked in the past 12 months, employment stability was
much lower among migrants. While more than 85 percent of Hawaii employed worked for at
least 48 weeks in the past 12 months, this percentage was 7-20 percentage points lower for
migrants. Among the three migrant groups, international in-migrants showed the lowest stability
in employment.
3
There were more people living in poverty among the migrants who moved to and from Hawaii in
the past 12 months. The poverty rate was especially high among the migrants who moved to
Hawaii from foreign countries. Nearly 20 percent of international migrants in Hawaii were
living in poverty in their first year of migration.
Propensity to Migrate Out Domestically
Propensity of Hawaii residents to migrate out domestically was examined to see how differences
in demographic, social and economic characteristics of individuals affected the propensity.
For the population aged 18 and over, the propensity to migrate out domestically decreased with
age. The propensity picked among the 18-24 age group showing that 9.2 percent of the 18-24
aged Hawaii residents moved out domestically every year during the 2013-2017 period. With
7.9 percent out-migration rate, the 25-34 age group showed the second highest propensity.
Nearly 10 percent of White-alone population in Hawaii moved to the U.S. mainland every year
during the period. This was about 5 times higher than the propensity of Asian-alone or Native
Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander-alone population to move out to the U.S. mainland.
The propensity of Hawaii residents to migrate out increased with education. With only 1.8
percent of them moving out annually, the persons with education less than a high school diploma
were the least mobile. The propensity to move out increased with education showing 5.4 percent
out-migration rate for the individuals with a Master degree or higher education.
Compared to the persons who worked in the past 12 months, the persons who were in the labor
forces but didn’t work in the past 12 months showed a much higher propensity to move out. By
occupation, a distinctively higher out-migration rate was observed for workers in Computer,
Engineering, and Science (CES) occupations.
Multivariate regression analysis was conducted to separate the indirect effects from the direct
effects by examining the impact of each characteristic with all other characteristics being held
constant. The regression results show that most key patterns in the propensity of Hawaii
residents to migrate out that we found from the descriptive analysis were still valid.
Multiple studies have shown that migration rates declined during the recession. The period
analyzed in this report was an expanding period for the whole U.S. economy including Hawaii.
In order to find out whether the findings from this report were specific to the period, future
studies may examine the differences between the period of recession and the period of economic
expansion in migration patterns.
4
Table of Contents
Executive Summary 1
1. Introduction 6
2. Migration and Population Growth 8
3. Moving Patterns of Hawaii Residents 10
4. Interstate and International Migrants in Hawaii 12
5. Origin and Destination of Migrants 15
6. Characteristics of Migrants 17
7. Propensity to Migrate of Domestic Out-Migrants 31
8. Concluding Observations 35
Reference 36
Appendix:
Propensity to Migrate of Domestic Out-Migrants: Logistic Regression Analysis 37
List of Tables
Table 1. Age composition of migrants 18
Table 2. Race composition of migrants 21
Table 3. Age distribution of domestic out-migrants by birthplace 23
Table 4. Gender distribution of migrants 24
Table 5. Marital status of migrants 25
Table 6. Educational attainment of migrants aged 18 and over and not in school 26
Table 7. Employment status of migrants aged 16 and over 27
Table 8. The number of weeks worked in the past 12 months 28
Table 9. Income distribution of migrants 29
Table 10. Migrants by poverty status 30
Table A-1. Logistic regression results 39
5
List of Figures
Figure 1. Trends of natural increase in Hawaii: total number and as percentage of
population
8
Figure 2. Migration trend in Hawaii since 2010 9
Figure 3. Moving rates of Hawaii residents 10
Figure 4. Movers as percentage of total residents, U.S. vs. Hawaii 11
Figure 5. Movers as percentage of total residents in Hawaii, by county 11
Figure 6. Interstate and international migrants as percentage of Hawaii residents 13
Figure 7. Origin and destination of domestic migrants 15
Figure 8. Origin of international in-migrants to Hawaii 16
Figure 9. Age composition of migrants 17
Figure 10. Military personnel and their families among migrants 19
Figure 11. Domestic migration with and without military population 19
Figure 12. Net domestic migrants by age group 20
Figure 13. Race composition of migrants 21
Figure 14. Birthplaces of domestic migrants 22
Figure 15. Birthplaces of international in-migrants 24
Figure 16. Educational attainment of migrants aged 18 and over and not in school 25
Figure 17. Occupations of migrants, civilian employed 28
Figure 18. Propensity of Hawaii residents to migrate out domestically, by characteristics 33
6
1. Introduction
The population in Hawaii was estimated to have declined in two consecutive years in 2017 and
2018 according to the most recent population estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau released in
2018. Although the accuracy of these estimates will be verified when the results of the next
decennial census become available after 2020, it raised concerns about the causes and impacts of
the population decline on Hawaii economy and other areas. Negative population growth was
reported for Hawaii only for a few years since it joined the United States as the 50th state in
1959. As the natural increase has been always positive, the negative total population growth was
due to the states’ having lost population to other areas through migration. For the past several
years, a relatively large negative net domestic migration was the main cause of the low or
negative population growth estimated for the years.
With the role of natural growth declining in population growth, population in Hawaii will be
increasingly relaying on migration for its growth in the future. However, migration flows are
very volatile and difficult to predict. The net migration in Hawaii has been very volatile in the
past years mostly due to the volatile domestic net migrations. One factor behind the severe
volatility of domestic net migration is that gross inflows and outflows of domestic migration in
Hawaii have been much larger, often more than 10 times larger, than net flows. Thus, a
relatively small percentage change in either gross inflow or outflow of migration sometimes
resulted in a large percentage change in net flow of domestic migration.
Migration flows are difficult to predict because there are numerous reasons behind people’s
moving decision. Nationwide statistics show that job-related reasons explained about half of
domestic interstate migrations in the U.S., which was roughly true for Hawaii. This makes
economic conditions especially labor market conditions important in understanding the migration
flows. However, there are many other reasons behind each moving decision. People would
move to pursue advanced education, for family-related reasons, or for the reason related to cost
of living. For international migration, the list of possible reasons could be much longer.
Migration flows are difficult to predict also because migration is determined by both pull factors
and push factors. Push factors are the conditions in Hawaii that force people to move out while
pull factors are the conditions in the destination that attract them. Migration flows are complex
as migration decisions are made based on comparisons between the relative opportunities and
conditions of two places.
This report aims to provide a broad assessment of migrations that Hawaii experienced in the past
several years. Although the size of net migration is important as it determines population growth
in the area, examining the patterns and characteristics associated with the migrants in each gross
flow separately would allow us to better understand the nature of issues and questions we have
encountered about migration.
7
This report starts with discussing the role of migration in Hawaii population growth and its trend
since 2010, followed by an overview of moving behaviors of Hawaii residents. It continues with
the origin and destination, and various characteristics of migrants are analyzed in detail for three
types of migrants; domestic in-migrants, domestic out-migrants, and international in-migrants.
Next, we examine the propensity of Hawaii residents to move out to the U.S. mainland by
various characteristics using descriptive statistics and logistic regression method. The report
concludes with some observations and recommendation for future works.
Data Source
This report examined the size and the characteristics of migrants based on the Public Use
Microdata Sample (PUMS) data from the American Community Survey (ACS), an annual
survey by the U.S. Census Bureau. ACS includes two questions related to the migration history
of the respondent. One is whether the respondent has moved since a year ago from the time of
the survey and the other is where the previous residence was a year ago. Therefore, not only the
size of the migration but the origin and destination, and the characteristics of the migrants can be
analyzed using the demographic, social and economic profiles of the migrants included in the
survey. This report analyzes migrations using information included in the 2013-2017 ACS. The
surveys were taken in the period of 2013-2017 reflecting the migrations taken place from 2012 to
2017.
Since ACS is a sample survey, all estimates based on ACS reported in this report subject to
sampling errors as well as non-sampling errors.
Limitation of Data
Some aspects of migrants such as duration of migration and return migration can be analyzed
only by a longitudinal data where same individuals were observed multiple times over a period
of time. Although some questions in ACS reference the 12- month period prior to the interview,
it is a cross-sectional survey where each individual was surveyed only at one point in time to
provide a snapshot of the individual. Therefore, full history of migration could not be analyzed.
The reason for the move is not included in the ACS. The Current Population survey (CPS),
another survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, asks a similar 1-year migration question in its Annual
Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC). CPS has an advantage over ACS in that it also asks
the reason for migration. However, the sample size of ASEC CPS is too small to produce
statistically meaningful information for in- and out- migrants to and from Hawaii. Also, unlike
ACS, the population who live in group quarter facilities such as college dormitories and military
barracks were not included in CPS.
This report analyzes both domestic and international migration. However, it couldn’t analyze
international out-migrants who moved out of the U.S. as ACS is a survey of people who are
currently living in the U.S.
8
2. Migration and Population Growth
Migration as a Driver of Population Growth
Migration is an important element of population growth as population growth is determined by
the natural increase and migration. The importance of migration as a driver of population growth
has been increasing over time. With the long-term trend of aging population and the recent
decrease in fertility rates both in Hawaii and the U.S., natural increase has been decreasing both
in total number and as percentage of population making the role of migration in population
growth of further importance.1
The left chart in Figure 1 presents birth, death, and natural increase as their difference in total
number. Total number of deaths in Hawaii has gradually increased over time as population grew
and as the influence of population aging dominated the influence of decreasing mortality. Total
number of births, on the other hand, showed ups-and-downs having been influenced by
economic and social conditions and as the size of population at child-bearing age varied with the
aging of the baby boomers. With total births fluctuating, total number of natural increases has
shown ups and downs as well. However, natural increase has been declining sharply when it was
measured as the percentage of population because the population of Hawaii has been growing.
Even after the baby boom period was over in the early 1960s, Hawaii’s population was able to
grow about 1 to 1.5 percent until the mid-1990s solely depending on the natural increase. The
maximum population growth Hawaii could achieve based on natural increase without any inflow
through migration was 0.4 percent in 2018, however.
Figure 1. Trends of natural increase in Hawaii: total number and as percentage of population
1 See pp14-17 of “Population and Economic Projections for the State of Hawaii to 2045” (June 2018, DBEDT)
for further discussion on decreasing fertility rate in Hawaii and the U.S.
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
25,000
19
6
1
19
6
5
19
6
9
19
7
3
19
7
7
19
8
1
19
8
5
19
8
9
19
9
3
19
9
7
20
0
1
20
0
5
20
0
9
20
1
3
20
1
7
Natural Increase
Death
Birth
2.1%
0.4%
0.0%
0.5%
1.0%
1.5%
2.0%
2.5%
19
6
1
19
6
5
19
6
9
19
7
3
19
7
7
19
8
1
19
8
5
19
8
9
19
9
3
19
9
7
20
0
1
20
0
5
20
0
9
20
1
3
20
1
7
Natural Increase as percentage of
population
9
Negative Net Migration in Recent Years
According to the 2018 annual population estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau, the average
annual population growth in Hawaii for 2010-2018 period was 0.5 percent, much lower than 0.9
percent for the 1990-2000 period and 1.2 percent for the 2000-2010 period. The slower
population growth in the years after 2010 was mainly due to a small positive or negative net
migration. International migration to Hawaii showed a steady positive net migration in all past
years. Domestic migration, on the other hand, showed a great year-by-year fluctuations in the
past years. For the years after 2010, Hawaii lost people to other states in the U.S. for all the years
while it continued to gain people through international migration. The size of net negative
domestic migration was especially big during 2017-2018, which resulted in negative total net
migration and negative population growth in 2017 and 2018.
Figure 2. Migration trend in Hawaii since 2010
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2018 Annual Population Estimates
This report investigated migration patterns and characteristics based on the 2017 5-year ACS
data. Surveys for this dataset were conducted during the period of 2013-2017. Since the survey
asks about moving within 1 year from the time of the survey, the survey covers migration taken
place in 2012-2017, which roughly matches the period Hawaii experienced a small positive or
negative net migration. The estimate of migration based on ACS does not always match the
estimates of migration from the Census Bureau’s population estimates program because the
former is based on a sample survey while the latter is based on the administrative records data.
The 2018 population estimates reported negative 6,979 average net annual domestic migration
and positive 6,946 average net annual international migration during the 2012-2017 period.
According to 2017 5-year ACS data, net annual domestic migration was negative 7,600 people
on average during the period, which is roughly in line with the estimates from the annual
population estimates. As stated in Limitation of Data, net international migration could not be
estimated based on ACS as international out-migrants were not included in ACS.
(20,000)
(15,000)
(10,000)
(5,000)
-
5,000
10,000
15,000
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Domestic International Total
10
3. Moving Patterns of Hawaii Residents
During the 2013-2017 period, on average 86.1 percent of total resident population aged 1 year
and over in Hawaii were non-movers, e.g. stayed in the same house as in the prior year. That
means that 13.9 percent of Hawaii residents moved their residency in the past 12 months. Of the
13.9 percent, 9 percent were movers within the state, while the other 4.9 percent moved either
from other states in the U.S. or from abroad in the past 12 months. 2
Figure 3. Moving rates of Hawaii residents
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2013-2017 5-year estimate table, B07007
Compared with the U.S. average, the overall moving rate was lower in Hawaii mostly because
moving between counties were less frequent in Hawaii. Only 0.6 percent of Hawaii residents
have moved to a different county in Hawaii in a typical year during the 2013-2017 period, while
the corresponding figure for national average was 3.2 percent. However, interstates and
international moving rates were higher in Hawaii. Of the total resident population in Hawaii
during the 2013-2017 period, 3.8 percent were movers from the U.S. mainland while another 1.1
percent were movers from abroad, higher than the U.S. average of 2.3 percent and 0.7 percent. It
may be attributed to the fact that Hawaii’s population includes a large military population who
subject to frequent relocation of residency. According to the 2013-2017 ACS data, active duty
military personnel accounted for 15.2 percent of those who moved from the U.S mainland, and
9.8 percent of those who moved from abroad. By comparison, they accounted for less than 3
percent of the total Hawaii resident population aged 1 year and over.
2 Note that moving rates in this section doesn’t include the moving of out-migrants, who moved out of Hawaii
and are no longer residents of Hawaii.
Nonmovers, 86.1%
Instate movers,
9.0%
Moved from
different state, 3.8%
Moved from
abroad, 1.1%
11
Figure 4. Movers as percentage of total residents, U.S. vs. Hawaii
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2013-2017 5-year estimate table, B01007
Higher Moving Rates for Honolulu County
Looking at moving rates by county, people in Honolulu County moved more frequently than
those in other counties. It was true for all moving categories except for the intercounty moving
within the state. More frequent within-county moving observed in Honolulu County might be
related to its relatively lower home ownership. The percentage of renter-occupied units was the
highest in Honolulu County (44.4%) during the 2013-2017 period, followed by Maui County
(40.7%), Kauai County (37.0%), and Hawaii County (33.0%). As for the moves from the U.S.
mainland and abroad, there may be multiple factors explaining the higher moving rate for
Honolulu county. Besides more college level education and job opportunities available in
Honolulu, the high concentration of military population in Honolulu County also explains the
higher interstate and international moving rate reported for Honolulu. In fact, over 95 percent of
active duty military personnel in Hawaii and therefore their families live on Oahu.
Figure 5. Movers as percentage of total residents in Hawaii, by county
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2013-2017 5-year estimate table, B01007
14.6%
8.4%
3.2%2.3%
0.7%
13.9%
8.4%
0.6%
3.8%
1.1%
Total Moved Moved within
same county
Moved from
different county
same state
Moved from
different state
Moved from
abroad
US HI
14.6%
8.8%
0.3%
4.2%
1.3%
11.6%
7.2%
0.9%
3.0%
0.5%
12.8%
8.1%
1.2%
2.5%1.0%
11.7%
7.4%
1.3%2.1%
0.9%
Total Moved Moved within
same county
Moved from
different county
in Hawaii
Moved from
U.S. mainland
Moved from
abroad
Honolulu County Hawaii County
Maui County Kauai County
12
4. Interstate and International Migrants in Hawaii
Although moves that were made locally within a county or within a state have its own policy
implications, the long-distance moves crossing the state border have drawn more interest among
policy makers and researchers due to their impact on population growth, labor market and the
whole economy of the state. In this and following sections of the report, discussions will be
made mainly based on the long-distance movers who moved across the state border in the past 12
months, and the term of migrants is used to denote them.
Counting the migrants both from the U.S. mainland and from abroad, about 69,600 Hawaii
residents on average during the 2013-2017 period were a migrant in the sense that they moved to
Hawaii less than a year ago. Among them, 78 percent (about 54,100 persons) were from the U.S.
mainland while the other 22 percent (about 15,500 persons) were from abroad. 3 However,
moving behavior were not even across the population groups with different characteristics.
Some segments of population moved more frequently than others while some segments of
population rarely moved. 4
Figure 6 presents how in-migration rate varied by characteristics when in-migration rate
measures the size of migrants as its percentage of Hawaii residents. While in-migration rate was
not significantly different by gender, it exhibited clear differences when compared by age,
educational attainment, and employment status. The characteristic group that was distinctively
mobile compared to other population segments in Hawaii was military personnel. Nearly one
out of four active duty military personnel in Hawaii moved to the state within one year prior to
the survey either from the U.S. mainland or from abroad. As far as moving is concerned, their
families behave similarly as all members in a family usually move together. Therefore, the
percentage of migrants was much lower at 3.6 percent if military personnel and their families
were excluded from the consideration. Aside from military status, the in-migration rates varied
by unemployment status. The unemployed included twice more migrants than the employed.
This may be partially because the unemployed were more likely to move and partially because it
took time to find a job when people moved to a new place without a prearranged job.
Another characteristic that showed a very distinctive in-migration pattern was age. As
commonly observed in the existing migration studies, migration peaked among the young-age
population. Hawaii residents in ages 18-34 included much more migrants among them than
other age groups did. About one in ten 18-34 aged persons in Hawaii migrated to the state in the
past 12 months either from the U.S. mainland or from abroad. Another age group that showed a
high in-migration rate was the 1-4 age group that must be attached to young married parents in
25-34 age.
3 Migrants from Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories were included in "migrants from abroad" in this report.
4 Since this section shows the share of migrants among Hawaii residents, only the characteristics of in-
migrants were reflected here.
13
Figure 6. Interstate and international migrants1 as percentage of Hawaii residents
1. People who moved to Hawaii from out-of-state in the past 12 months
2. Include migrants from Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories
3. Among Hawaii residents aged 25 years and over
4. Among Hawaii residents aged 16 years and over
Source: Estimates based on U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2013-2017 5-year PUMS
4.7%
5.2%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%
Female
Male
By Gender
Moved from US mainland Moved from abroad 2
6.5%
4.0%
11.2%
9.3%
4.9%
2.9%
1.4%
1-4
5-17
18-24
25-34
35-44
45-64
65plus
By Age
10.9%
2.4%
2.1%
15.2%
2.8%
White-alone
Asian-alone
NH & Other PI-alone
Other Race-alone
Two or More races
By Race
2.4%
5.1%
6.2%
HS diploma or less
Some college or BA degree
MA, Prof, DR degree
By Educational Attainment 3
4.0%
23.9%
8.2%
4.4%
Civilian employed
Armed force
Unemployed
Not in labor force
By Employment Status 4
14
Interestingly, the in-migration rate was not particularly high among the elderly population in
Hawaii. Only 1.4 percent of the total elderly population aged 65 and over in Hawaii have moved
to Hawaii from outside in the past 12 months. It is very typical that the elderly population shows
low mobility. Some may suggest that Hawaii would attract many retirement migrants as its
warm climate is favorable to the elderly population. However, the data didn’t show any
evidence of retirement migration occurring at a significant scale in Hawaii.
Educational attainment also affected the in-migration rates. More educated group included more
migrants within them supporting the widely known pattern of migration that highly educated
people were more mobile. Among people aged 25 and over in Hawaii, 5.1 percent of those with
some college education or a Bachelor’s degree were new comers to the state in that year while
the percentage was only 2.4 percent for those with a high school diploma or less education. The
share of migrants was even higher among the people with a graduate or a professional degree. If
a sizable number of Hawaii's young adults had left to the mainland to attend a college and came
back home after completing the education, this post-college return migration may have made
some contribution to the higher percentage of migrants among the college educated in Hawaii.
Race was another characteristic that demonstrated very different migration patterns across the
characteristic groups. In comparison to Asian-alone or Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific
Island-alone, Other Race-alone and White-alone population showed much higher in-migration
rates. Of total White-alone and Other Race-alone population living in Hawaii during the 2013-
2017 period, 10.9 percent and 15.2 percent of them were migrants who moved to Hawaii in the
past 12 months. In contrast, a little over 2 percent of Asian-alone, and Native Hawaiian and
Other Pacific Islander-alone have moved to Hawaii from outside in the past 12 months. Two or
More races included a similar percentage of migrants, but the rate was a little higher at 2.8
percent.
15
5. Origin and Destination of Migrants
Origin and Destination of Domestic Migrants
Figure 7 presents where
domestic in-migrants to
Hawaii came from and where
domestic out-migrants from
Hawaii headed during the
2013-2017 period.
Receiving and sending more
than 20 percent of domestic
migrants from and to Hawaii,
California was the top
destination of out-migrants
from Hawaii as well as top
origin of in-migrants to
Hawaii. Washington and
Texas were the two other
states that have been both
sender and recipient of
migrants to and from Hawaii.
Many states on the top of the
list have either geographic
proximity such as California
and Washington, similar
climate such as Florida,
metro areas with a large
population and possibly more
job opportunities, or states
with a large military base.
Figure 7. Origin and destination of domestic migrants
Source: Estimates based on U.S. Census Bureau, American Community
Survey 2013-2017 5-year PUMS
A pattern worth mentioning here is the similarity between origins and destinations of in- and out-
migrants, possibly hinting the presence of return migration at a large scale. In fact, 35 percent of
U.S. mainland-born domestic out-migrants moved to their home state where they were born.
Excluding active duty military personnel and their families, the percentage was higher at 41.1
percent.
16
Origin of International In-migrants
Although the size was not as big as the migration from the U.S. mainland, Hawaii has been
receiving steady inflows from foreign countries. During the 2013-2017 period, on average
15,500 people moved to Hawaii annually from foreign counties. Unlike domestic migration,
ACS provides information on international migration for in-migrants only because people who
moved out of the U.S. were not covered in the survey. An indirect way to assess the size of
international out-migration is comparing the estimate of international in-migration from ACS
with the estimate of net international migration from the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual population
estimates. Although making a comparison of two estimates from different data sources is not
advised, it would give us some idea on the size of international out-migration from Hawaii. The
2018 vintage population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the net international
migration to Hawaii during the period of our consideration at about 7,000 per year. Comparing
this estimate with the estimate of annual international in-migrants from ACS suggests that the
size of international out-migration from Hawaii was a little over a half- size of international in-
migration to Hawaii during the period.
Figure 8 presents where the international in-migrants to Hawaii came from. Of the estimated
15,500 annual international in-migrants to Hawaii, 61.5 percent came from Asia. By country,
Japan and Philippines were two main countries of origin for the international in-migrants to
Hawaii during the 2013-2017 period. Philippines was the top origin of civilian families while
Japan was where many of the civilian and military families came from. Excluding active duty
military personnel and their families, 22.1 percent of international in-migrants to Hawaii were
from Philippines. Japan’s share was somewhat lower at 17.2 percent when active duty military
personnel and their families were excluded.
Figure 8. Origin of international in-migrants to Hawaii
Source: Estimates based on U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2013-2017 5-year PUMS
17
6. Characteristics of Migrants
Section 4 showed that the percentage of migrants among Hawaii residents varied widely by key
characteristics. That was because the migrants who moved to Hawaii from outside had
characteristics different from the average characteristics of Hawaii residents. In this section, we
will discuss the characteristics of migrants, not only the migrants who were living in Hawaii but
also the migrants who moved out from Hawaii and were living in the U.S. mainland. Again, the
characteristics of international out-migrants who moved out of the U.S. could not be analyzed as
they were not included in ACS, a survey of U.S. residents.
Age Composition
The most common characteristics of migrants at any geographic level, domestic and international
alike, was its concentration in young age population. Hawaii was not an exception. Age
structure of migrants was much younger than that of total population, and it was true for both
migrants who moved to Hawaii and who moved out of Hawaii. It was also true for both
domestic and international migrants. The largest age group among migrants was the young adult
and prime working age population in ages 18-34. This demographic segment, where most
college students and first-time job seeker would fall in, showed the highest proportion for
domestic in-migrants at 49.9 percent. It was more than twice as high as its proportion of overall
Hawaii residents.
Figure 9. Age composition of migrants
Source: Estimates based on U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2013-2017 5-year PUMS
Although a little lower compared to domestic in-migrants, this 18-34 age group accounted for
43-46 percent of domestic out-migrants and international in-migrants as well. On the other hand,
the percentages of the older working age group in ages 45-64, and the elderly population aged 65
and over were much lower among migrants.
20.7%
20.2%
22.9%
15.8%
23.8%
49.9%
45.7%
42.9%
38.6%
25.6%
26.2%
34.7%
17.0%
4.3%
5.2%
6.6%
Hawaii
residents
Domestic
in‐migrants
Domestic
out‐migrants
International
in‐migrants
1‐17 18‐34 35‐64 65 & over
18
Table 1, Age composition of migrants
Age Hawaii
residents
Dom.
inmigrant
Dom.
outmigrant
Int’l
inmigrant
Excluding military personnel
and their families
Hawaii
residents
Dom.
inmigrant
Dom.
outmigrant
Int’l
inmigrant
All aged 1 and
over 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
1-17 20.7% 20.2% 22.9% 15.8% 20.3% 16.4% 20.1% 14.6%
18-24 9.2% 21.8% 19.3% 17.8% 8.3% 18.0% 20.6% 18.8%
25-34 14.6% 28.2% 26.3% 25.1% 13.6% 27.4% 25.2% 22.5%
35-44 12.7% 11.8% 11.7% 15.9% 12.6% 12.8% 11.7% 14.3%
45-64 25.9% 13.8% 14.4% 18.8% 27.2% 19.0% 15.8% 21.7%
65 and over 17.0% 4.3% 5.2% 6.6% 18.0% 6.4% 6.5% 7.9%
Source: Estimates based on U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2013-2017 5-year PUMS
Military Personnel and their Families among Migrants
Military personnel move much more frequently than the civilian population. As far as migration
is concerned, their families behave quite similarly. Not only military personnel themselves but
also their dependents move for the reasons and patterns that are very different from the people in
civilian families. They move by relocation orders that are rarely related to the economic and
other conditions in Hawaii. They move more frequently than population in civilian families.
According to a study, the average military family moves every 3 years and nine times over a 20-
year career, not including deployments (Berg, 2008). Their moves are mostly across the state
boundary. For these reasons, migrants included much more military personnel and their families
than overall Hawaii residents did.
In this study, we defined the military families as people who live with an active duty military
personnel in the same house. To exclude the unrelated people living with the military personnel
in the same house, we included the household member only if she/he had a military insurance.5
Defined as mentioned, 32.6 percent of migrants to Hawaii from the U.S. mainland were active
duty military personnel or their families during the 2013-2017 period. Somehow, domestic in-
migrants included more military related population than domestic out-migrants did during the
time period. Since we didn’t observe a significant change in the number of active duty military
personnel in Hawaii during the period, one possibility is that many military personnel and their
families moved out to foreign countries rather than moving out to the U.S. mainland during the
period, which we couldn’t verify with data.
5 Note that the definition of military family in this report may differ from the definition used in other military
statistics.
19
Figure 10. Military personnel and their families among migrants
*Military family was defined as those who live with an active duty military personnel in the same house and have a
military insurance.
Source: Estimates based on U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2013-2017 5-year PUMS
When it comes to migration issue, we are often interested in the civilian family population only
because military personnel and their families move for reasons that are not much related to the
economic conditions in Hawaii that we have concerns about. More military-related population in
domestic in-migrants than in domestic out-migrants suggests an important implication for the
migration of civilian families during the period. The asymmetric sizes imply that the size of net
domestic outflow was bigger than commonly known if our interest was in the civilian family
population only. The figure and table below show the size of net domestic migration with and
without military-related population included. Including active duty military personnel and their
families, Hawaii showed a net loss of on average 7,600 people annually to other states in the
U.S. during the 2013-2017 period. If we count the civilian family population only, the size of
annual net loss was much bigger at 13,200 people.
Figure 11. Domestic migration with and without military population
All domestic migrants
In-migrants 54,100
Out-migrants 61,700
Net (7,600)
Excluding military personnel
and their families
In-migrants 36,500
Out-migrants 49,700
Net (13,200)
Source: Estimates based on U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2013-2017 5-year PUMS
94.2%
67.4%
80.6%
82.6%
5.8%
32.6%
19.4%
17.4%
Hawaii residents
Domestic in-migrants
Domestic out-migrants
International in-migrants
Civilian families Military personnel and their families*
(20,000)
-
20,000
40,000
60,000
80,000
100,000
All domestic migrants Excluding military
personnel and their
families
In-migrants Out-migrants Net Domestic
20
Domestic net migration was also examined by age group with and without including military
related population. Including active duty military personnel and their families, the net domestic
out migration, presented as gray bars in Figure 12, was either not observed at all or very small in
size for the young age population in ages 18-34. However, the chart on the right shows that
Hawaii had been losing a significant number of the young age population to other states in both
the 18-24 and 25-34 age categories if we don’t count the net inflow of military population to
Hawaii in these two age categories.
Figure 12. Net domestic migrants by age group
Source: Estimates based on U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2013-2017 5-year PUMS
Race Composition
Another characteristic that showed substantial differences between migrants and overall Hawaii
residents was race. Accounting for over half of each domestic in- and out-migrants, White-alone
was the major race group among domestic migrants. The race’s proportion of domestic in- and
out-migrants was more than twice as high as its proportion of overall Hawaii residents. The
higher proportion of White-alone population in domestic in-migrants seems natural as 73 percent
of the U.S. mainland population were White-alone, three times higher than 25 percent in Hawaii
population. However, it is interesting to see the proportion of White-alone population very high
among domestic out-migrants as well. During the 2013-2017, 56.2 percent of domestic out-
migrants from Hawaii were White-alone. Military personnel and their families in Hawaii include
more White-alone population than overall Hawaii residents do. For that reason, the dominance
of White-alone population decreased when military personnel and their families were excluded,
but not much. The race still composed more than half of domestic out-migrants from Hawaii.
In contrast, domestic migrants included much less Asian-alone and Native Hawaiian and Pacific
Islander-alone population. Asian-alone makes up about 40 percent of total Hawaii population.
However, only 14.1 percent of domestic out-migrants during the 2013-2017 period were Asian-
(5,000)
-
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
1-17 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-6465plus
All domestic migrants
In-migrants Out-migrants Net
(5,000)
-
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
1-17 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-64 65plus
Excluding military personnel and
their families
In-migrants Out-migrants Net
21
alone. Although not as significantly as in Asian-alone population, a similar pattern was observed
for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander-alone. While they accounted for about 10 percent of
total Hawaii population, their share of domestic out-migrants during that period was 4.9 percent.
Figure 13. Race composition of migrants
Source: Estimates based on U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2013-2017 5-year PUMS
Table 2, Race composition of migrants
Race
Hawaii
residents
Dom.
inmigrant
Dom.
outmigrant
Int’l
inmigrant
Excluding military personnel
and their families
Hawaii
residents
Dom.
inmigrant
Dom.
outmigrant
Int’l
inmigrant
All races
(aged 1 and over) 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
White-alone 25.1% 62.9% 56.2% 27.4% 22.7% 59.4% 53.1% 21.7%
Asian-alone 37.8% 9.8% 14.1% 47.0% 39.8% 12.6% 15.4% 52.5%
NH/Other PI-alone 10.1% 3.0% 4.9% 8.5% 10.6% 3.8% 5.6% 10.2%
Other Race-alone 3.0% 9.5% 11.7% 7.7% 2.3% 7.6% 11.2% 7.4%
Two or More races 24.0% 14.7% 13.1% 9.4% 24.7% 16.5% 14.7% 8.2%
Source: Estimates based on U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2013-2017 5-year PUMS
Birthplace and Return Migration
The high percentage of White-alone population among domestic out-migrants hints the
possibility of a sizeable return migration. The migration decisions would be made for different
reasons and influenced by numerous factors. If a move was made only for higher education, the
individual may have planned, even before the initial move, to come back home after she/he
25.1%
62.9%
56.2%
27.4%
37.8%
9.8%
14.1%
47.0%
10.1%
3.0%
4.9%
8.5%
3.0%
9.5%
11.7%
7.7%
24.0%
14.7%
13.1%
9.4%
Hawaii
residents
Domestic
in‐migrants
Domestic
out‐migrants
International
in‐migrants
White‐alone Asian‐alone NH & Other PI‐alone Other Race‐alone Two or More races
22
finishes the education. If a move was made for a better job opportunity, it is likely that the return
migration is determined by the job market situation in both the origin and the destination.
ACS doesn’t ask about the moving activity of the respondent for the time more than one year
ago, nor the reasons for the move. Therefore, the survey does not provide answers to the
question of how many of the observed migrations were return migrations. The only information
available from the survey that can hint on the possibility of return migration is birthplace of the
respondent.
About 75 percent of domestic in-migrants were born on the mainland, which seems very natural.
Similar to what observed in the race composition, however, a significant number of domestic
out-migrants were also mainland-born. About 2 in 3 people who moved from Hawaii to the U.S.
mainland during the 2013-2017 period were born on the mainland, which means that the person
moved to Hawaii from the mainland sometime since her/his birth. They may have moved to
Hawaii in their childhood and moved back to the mainland for an education or a job. Or, they
may have come to Hawaii for an education or a job as a young-adult and returned to their home
states or other states in the mainland either as planned or as they found it difficult to manage
living in Hawaii.
Figure 14. Birthplaces of domestic migrants
Source: Estimates based on U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2013-2017 5-year PUMS
The age distribution of domestic out-migrants varied significantly by birthplace. The first three
columns in Table 3 show the age distribution of domestic out-migrants by birthplace. In this
table, we excluded military personnel and their families to focus on the migration patterns of the
population not related to military. The Hawaii-born domestic out-migrants showed the youngest
age structure. About two third of Hawaii-born out-migrants to the U.S. mainland were aged 24
or under. On the other hand, this age group made up about one third of the mainland-born, and
one fifth of the foreign-born out-migrants to the U.S. mainland.
11.6%
13.9%
74.9%
70.0%
13.5%
16.1%
All domestic in-migrants
Excluding military personnel
and their families
Hawaii Mainland Foreign countries or U.S. territories
23.0%
23.7%
63.8%
62.3%
13.2%
13.9%
All domestic out-migrants
Excluding military personnel
and their families
23
These figures are for all people who moved, including both householders and non-householders.
Although the move could be initiated by any member in the household, householders are more
likely to be the lead of the move either as the decision maker or cause provider. For that reason,
we also looked at the age distribution of migrants excluding non-householders. As presented in
the right three columns in Table 3, many Hawaii-born householders left Hawaii when they were
in the age of 18-24. Among the Hawaii-born out-migrants to the U.S. mainland, 60 percent of
the householders, of any types of households including living alone or living in a group quarter
such as college dormitory, were in ages 18-24. The Hawaii-born out-migrants in this age range
might have moved to the mainland to attend a college or for their first job in the mainland after
college graduation in Hawaii. In contrast, only 15 or lower percent of householders were in this
young adult population group for the mainland- and foreign-born out-migrants. In fact, more
than half of the householders among the mainland-born and foreign-born out-migrants fell in the
25-44 age range, suggesting that they likely have moved to the mainland for a job or some other
reasons rather than education.
Table 3. Age distribution of domestic out-migrants by birthplace
Age
Domestic out-migrants excluding military personnel and their families
All persons in the households Householders only 1
Hawaii-
born
Mainland-
born
Other U.S.
territory or
Foreign
born
Hawaii-
born
Mainland-
born
Other U.S.
territory or
Foreign
born
All aged 1&over 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
1-17 29.4% 19.1% 8.6% 1.8% 0.2% 0.0%
18-24 37.2% 16.4% 11.1% 60.1% 12.5% 15.1%
25-34 11.1% 28.4% 35.3% 14.0% 37.6% 34.6%
35-44 6.1% 13.0% 15.6% 6.7% 17.4% 20.3%
45-64 10.1% 17.1% 19.6% 14.9% 24.6% 18.8%
65 & over 6.0% 6.0% 9.8% 2.6% 7.7% 11.2%
1 include living alone householders and individuals living in group quarters such as college dormitory
Source: Estimates based on U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2013-2017 5-year PUMS
Birthplace information is useful as well in making a guess on the size of returning U.S. residents
among international in-migrants to Hawaii. More than one third of international in-migrants to
Hawaii during the 2013-2017 period were actually born in the U.S., 9.0 percent in Hawaii and
28.1 percent in the U.S. mainland. Military personnel and their families are more likely to be a
U.S.-born. However, with 31 percent of them born in the U.S. international in-migrants to
Hawaii included a significant number of returning U.S. residents even after excluding military
personnel and their families.
24
Figure 15. Birthplaces of international in-migrants
Source: Estimates based on U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2013-2017 5-year PUMS
Gender and Marital Status
Table 4 compares the three migrant groups with overall Hawaii residents for gender composition.
The migrants during the 2013-2017 period included slightly more males than overall Hawaii
residents. This is likely due to there being more military personnel, a very male dominant group,
among migrants than among overall Hawaii residents during the period. Therefore, the slight
male dominance disappeared when male dominant active duty military personnel and slightly
female dominant their families were excluded in the comparison.
Table 4. Gender distribution of migrants
Gender Hawaii
residents
Dom.
inmigrant
Dom.
outmigrant
Int’l
inmigrant
Excluding military personnel
and their families
Hawaii
residents
Dom.
inmigrant
Dom.
outmigrant
Int’l
Inmigrant
All aged 1 & over 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
Female 49.8% 47.4% 48.3% 46.4% 50.5% 50.0% 49.8% 48.4%
Male 50.2% 52.6% 51.7% 53.6% 49.5% 50.0% 50.2% 51.6%
Source: Estimates based on U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2013-2017 5-year PUMS
Table 5 compares migrants with overall Hawaii residents by marital status for those who aged 18
and over. As in the gender composition, marital status of migrants was not much different from
that of overall Hawaii residents. Compared with overall Hawaii residents and domestic
migrants, migrants who moved to Hawaii from abroad had slightly more married persons while
domestic migrants to and from Hawaii included more persons never married. Given the younger
age structure of domestic migrants, the higher proportion of persons never married was expected.
9.0%
10.2%
28.1%
21.0%
4.5%
4.4%
58.4%
64.4%
All international in-migrants
Excluding military personnel
and their families
Hawaii Mainland U.S. territories Foreign countries
25
Table 5. Marital status of migrants
Marital Status Hawaii
residents
Dom.
inmigrant
Dom.
outmigrant
Int’l
inmigrant
Excluding military personnel
and their families
Hawaii
residents
Dom.
inmigrant
Dom.
outmigrant
Int’l
inmigrant
All aged 18 & over 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
Married 52.0% 52.7% 48.9% 56.3% 51.2% 45.0% 43.3% 52.9%
Widowed/divorced
/separated 17.5% 9.6% 12.6% 9.1% 18.3% 12.2% 14.5% 9.9%
Never married 30.5% 37.7% 38.6% 34.6% 30.5% 42.7% 42.3% 37.2%
Source: Estimates based on U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2013-2017 5-year PUMS
Educational Attainment
It was shown in many studies that mobility increased with education. College-educated were
more likely to migrate than those without a college education (Kodrzycki 2001). College
graduates were two to five times more likely than less educated workers to reside in a state with
high labor demand at the time they entered the market (Wozniak, 2006). This tendency is well
reflected in the distribution of educational attainment of migrants. Compared to overall Hawaii
residents, both domestic in- and out-migrants were more educated in general. Among Hawaii
residents aged 18 and over and not attending a school for the last three months before the time of
the survey, 39.4 percent had a high school diploma or less education. This education group
accounted for only 24.0 percent of domestic in-migrants and 30.0 percent of domestic out-
migrants during the 2013-2017 period. On the other hand, the proportion of individuals with
some college education, a Bachelor’s degree (BA), and a Master degree (MA) or higher
education was all higher among domestic migrants than among Hawaii residents.
Figure 16. Educational attainment of migrants aged 18 and over and not in school
Source: Estimates based on U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2013-2017 5-year PUMS
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
Less than HS diploma
HS diploma
Some college
BA degree
MA degree or higher
Hawaii
residents
Domestic
in-migrants
Domestic
out-migrants
International
in-migrants
26
Migrants from abroad showed quite different patterns. It cannot be said that international in-
migrants were less educated or more educated in general because they included more of each end
of the spectrum: both least-educated people and most-educated people. Compared to overall
Hawaii residents, international in-migrants during the 2013-2017 period included more people
with less than high school education (10.8%). That was 2.2 percentage point higher than its
proportion among Hawaii residents. However, the proportion of those with a Bachelor’s degree
or higher education was also higher among international in-migrants (30.1% for Hawaii residents
vs. 35.6% for international in-migrants).
Table 6. Educational attainment of migrants aged 18 and over and not in school
Educational
Attainment
Hawaii
residents
Dom.
inmigrant
Dom.
outmigrant
Int’l
inmigrant
Excluding military personnel
and their families
Hawaii
residents
Dom.
inmigrant
Dom.
outmigrant
Int’l
inmigrant
Aged 18+, not in school 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
Less than HS diploma 8.6% 2.3% 4.3% 10.8% 9.0% 2.5% 5.1% 12.6%
HS diploma 30.8% 21.7% 25.7% 24.1% 30.6% 18.2% 26.2% 24.1%
Some college 30.5% 37.5% 31.5% 29.8% 30.1% 36.2% 30.2% 28.4%
BA degree 20.3% 25.3% 23.8% 24.5% 20.4% 28.2% 23.9% 24.8%
MA degree or higher 9.8% 13.1% 14.6% 11.1% 9.8% 14.9% 14.7% 10.2%
Source: Estimates based on U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2013-2017 5-year PUMS
Employment Status and Occupation
Employment status of migrants is compared to overall Hawaii residents in Table 7 for the
working-age population aged 16 and over. Migrants included three to five times more military
personnel among them as they moved more frequently than the civilian population.
Compared with overall Hawaii residents, domestic migrants showed a higher labor force
participation rate. The higher labor force participation rate must be due to the fact that domestic
migrants had an age structure younger than overall Hawaii residents. Although more people
participated in the labor force, the unemployment rate was high among domestic migrants.
While the high unemployment rate was observed in both in- and out-migrants, the
unemployment rate was especially high among domestic out-migrants. The percentage of the
unemployed among domestic out-migrants was 6.9 percent of those aged 16 and over and 9.9
percent of the total labor force. Lack of employment opportunities is one of the key causes of
migration. Many previous studies showed that the unemployed were more likely to migrate.
Unlike many other characteristics that don’t change over time, however, the employment status
could have changed as a result of moving. Therefore, migrants included more people
unemployed partially because the unemployed were more likely to move looking for a job and
partially because moving left the migrant unemployed temporarily right after the moving.
27
International in-migrants showed a labor force participation rate lower than overall Hawaii
residents although they also had an age structure younger than overall Hawaii residents. We may
find the reason in the fact that international in-migrants included many foreign-born. As shown
in page 22, about 60 percent of international in-migrants to Hawaii were a foreign-born. The
labor force participation rate of foreign-born population in Hawaii is not meaningfully different
from that of the natives in general. However, the foreign-born migrants could be discouraged to
join the labor force in the first year of moving due to language barriers and cultural differences.
It’s interesting to see that the unemployment rate of international in-migrants was lower than
domestic migrants, who must have had less challenges in finding a job than international in-
migrants. Putting this together with a lower labor force participation rate of international in-
migrants, one possible explanation could be that international in-migrants tended to wait to join
the labor force until they saw a better chance of being hired.
Table 7. Employment status of migrants aged 16 and over
Employment
Status*
Hawaii
residents
Dom.
inmigrant
Dom.
outmigrant
Int’l
inmigrant
Excluding military personnel
and their families
Hawaii
residents
Dom.
inmigrant
Dom.
outmigrant
Int’l
inmigrant
All aged 16 & over 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
Civilian employed 58.6% 47.6% 51.4% 46.1% 61.2% 62.7% 59.2% 54.2%
Armed force 3.6% 19.0% 11.1% 11.6% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Unemployed 2.8% 5.0% 6.9% 3.6% 2.9% 5.4% 7.6% 4.3%
Not in labor force 35.0% 28.4% 30.7% 38.7% 35.9% 31.9% 33.2% 41.6%
*For the week prior to the survey
Source: Estimates based on U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2013-2017 5-year PUMS
Table 8 shows how the stability of employment was associated with migration. Unstable
employment status might have forced them to move out from the place they couldn’t find a
stable job. At the same time, migration might have left them temporarily unemployed as
discussed. The employment stability was measured in Table 8 as the number of weeks worked
in the past 12 months for those who were employed.
While the data doesn’t allow us to tell the causality relation of unstable employment and
migration, Table 8 clearly shows that many migrants experienced unstable employment in the
year of migration. Over 85 percent of employed Hawaii residents indicated that they worked for
at least 48 weeks (roughly 11 months) in the past 12 months. However, the percentage
associated with the three migrant groups was up to 27 percentage point lower.
Among the three migrant groups, international in-migrants showed the lowest stability in
employment. In general, military personnel tend to maintain a stable employment status
regardless of moving. Hence, the employment stability indicators all got worse when military
personnel were excluded. Excluding active duty military personnel, 25.7 percent of international
28
in-migrants who were employed at the time of the survey indicated that they worked only for 26
weeks or less in the past 12 months. Employment stability of domestic migrants was lower than
overall Hawaii residents, but was better compared with international in-migrants.
Table 8. The number of weeks worked in the past 12 months
Number of weeks
worked in the past
12 months
Hawaii
residents
Dom.
inmigrant
Dom.
outmigrant
Int’l
inmigrant
Excluding military personnel
Hawaii
residents
Dom.
inmigrant
Dom.
outmigrant
Int’l
inmigrant
All employed 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
48-52 weeks 86.2% 79.5% 74.6% 66.0% 85.5% 73.6% 70.4% 58.2%
40-47 weeks 4.2% 6.6% 5.2% 4.8% 4.4% 8.3% 5.9% 6.0%
27-39 weeks 3.7% 7.0% 8.2% 8.2% 3.9% 9.0% 9.8% 10.1%
26 weeks or less 5.9% 6.8% 11.9% 21.0% 6.2% 9.1% 13.9% 25.7%
Source: Estimates based on U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2013-2017 5-year PUMS
Figure 17 shows the occupations of the civilian employed in the three migrant groups and overall
Hawaii residents. Compared with overall Hawaii residents, both the domestic and international
in-migrants showed a higher proportion in Food Service. Other than Food Service, domestic in-
migrants included more people with Health occupations while international in-migrants included
significantly more people with Other Service occupations.
Figure 17. Occupations of migrants, civilian employed
Source: Estimates based on U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2013-2017 5-year PUMS
0% 10% 20% 30%
Computer, Engineering, Science
Education
Food Service
Health
Management, business, finance
Nat. resources, Construction, Maint.
Other Services
Production, Transportation, Moving
Sales and Office
Hawaii
residents
Domestic
in-migrants
Domestic
out-migrants
International
in-migrants
29
Meanwhile, domestic out-migrants showed a noticeably higher proportion for Computer,
Engineering, and Science occupations, and slightly higher proportion for the occupation of
Education.
Compared with overall Hawaii residents, Construction and Other Service were the occupations
that were less common among domestic migrants. On the other hand, Health, and Sales and
Office occupations were much less commonly observed among international in-migrants.
Income and Poverty
Table 9 presents income distribution of the three migrant groups compared with overall Hawaii
residents. In general, migrants included more of very low-income earners who made $10,000 or
less per year. Among the employed Hawaii residents, those who made $10,000 or less per year
made up less than 10 percent during the 2013-2017 period. This proportion was 2-5 percentage
point higher for domestic migrants and 16 percentage point higher for international in-migrants.
In fact, about one in four (one in three if active duty military personnel and their families were
excluded) international in-migrants during the 2013-2017 period made $10,000 or less in their
first year of moving.
There are two possible reasons for the low annual income; worked for a low-paid job or worked
less. While many characteristics such as gender, race, birthplace, education, and occupation
wouldn’t change immediately with migration, migration may have affected employment status
and income, especially in the year of migration. If a person moved without prearrangement of
jobs, it is likely that the person stayed unemployed until he/she started a new job and was left
with income lower than usual. As presented in Table 8, about a fifth (or a quarter excluding
military personnel) of international in-migrants who were employed at the time of the survey
indicated that they worked for 26 weeks or less in the past 12 months, which partially explains
the high proportion of low-income earners among international in-migrants.
Table 9. Income distribution of migrants
Income in the past
12 months
Hawaii
residents
Dom.
inmigrant
Dom.
outmigrant
Int’l
inmigrant
Excluding military personnel
and their families
Hawaii
residents
Dom.
inmigrant
Dom.
outmigrant
Int’l
Inmigrant
All employed 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
$10K or less 9.5% 11.1% 14.8% 25.2% 9.7% 12.1% 16.8% 31.8%
$10K-$25K 19.6% 23.3% 24.8% 20.9% 19.4% 23.2% 25.8% 22.7%
$25K-$50K 33.5% 30.8% 28.5% 26.0% 33.4% 29.9% 28.4% 23.1%
$50K-$75K 18.6% 16.8% 13.8% 15.4% 18.6% 15.5% 11.8% 13.7%
$75K & over 18.8% 17.9% 18.1% 12.5% 18.8% 19.4% 17.1% 8.6%
Source: Estimates based on U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2013-2017 5-year PUMS
30
As for the high-income category of making $75,000 or more per year, the pattern differed
between domestic and international migrants. The proportion of this high-income group in
domestic migrants was not much different from overall Hawaii residents. However, the
percentage of this high- income earners were significantly lower for international in-migrants.
The percentage of this high-income earner of total employed international in-migrants was 6.3
percentage point (10.2 percentage point excluding military personnel and their families) lower
than overall Hawaii residents.
Table 10 tells us similar stories in a different measure, poverty status.6 Poverty threshold is
determined by size and type of the family. Similar to the analysis based on income, there were
more people living in poverty among migrants who moved to and from Hawaii in the past 12
months, especially among the migrants who moved to Hawaii from abroad. The poverty rate, the
percentage of people living in poverty, of international in-migrants was twice as high as that of
overall Hawaii residents. Although it was not as high as for international in-migrants, domestic
migrants also had significantly more people living in poverty than overall Hawaii residents did.
Table 10. Migrants by poverty status
Percentage of
poverty threshold
Hawaii
residents
Dom.
inmigrant
Dom.
outmigrant
Int’l
inmigrant
Excluding military personnel
and their families
Hawaii
residents
Dom.
inmigrant
Dom.
outmigrant
Int’l
inmigrant
All aged 1& over
who poverty can be
defined for*
100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
Below 100% 10.4% 11.8% 13.5% 19.2% 10.8% 15.5% 15.2% 23.3%
100-200% 13.4% 16.7% 17.0% 15.9% 13.0% 14.6% 16.7% 13.2%
200-300% 15.3% 18.6% 16.8% 19.2% 15.0% 14.9% 14.7% 21.0%
300% or over 60.9% 52.9% 52.6% 45.7% 61.1% 55.1% 53.5% 42.4%
*Poverty status cannot be determined for people in group quarters and for unrelated individuals under age 15.
Source: Estimates based on U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2013-2017 5-year PUMS
6 Poverty thresholds are the dollar amounts set to determine poverty status. The U.S. Census Bureau uses a set
of money income thresholds that vary by family size and composition to determine who is in poverty. If a
family's total income is less than the family's threshold, then that family and every individual in it is considered
in poverty. The official poverty thresholds do not vary geographically, but they are updated for inflation using
the Consumer Price Index. (U.S. Census Bureau, https://www.census.gov/topics/income-
poverty/poverty/guidance/poverty-measures.html)
31
7. Propensity to Migrate of Domestic Out‐Migrants
This section examines how differences in demographic, social and economic characteristics
affected the propensity of Hawaii residents to migrate to the U.S. mainland. The propensity of a
characteristic group to migrate out was measured approximately by dividing the number of those
who moved out from each characteristics group by the number of total Hawaii residents in the
characteristic group during the period.
The charts in the left column of Figure 18 presents the propensity to migrate out by 6 key
characteristics for overall Hawaii residents. It shows that the propensity to migrate out
domestically decreased with age, and increased with education. People in the labor force but
didn’t work in the past 12 months (proxy for the unemployed at the time of migration) showed
much higher propensity to move out than those who worked. The propensities were calculated
similarly for a subgroup of the population excluding military personnel and their families (right
column). The propensities were smaller in general when military related population, who move
more frequently, were excluded. However, the 18-24 age group and the Other Race-alone group
exhibited a propensity slightly higher without military related population, indicating strong
migration movement among civilian family population with these characteristics.
Age
The domestic out-migration rate of Hawaii residents varied significantly by age. For the
population aged 18 and over, the propensity to migrate decreased with age.7 The propensity to
migrate was the highest among the 18-24 age group at 9.2 percent, which means that 9.2 percent
of Hawaii residents in ages 18-24 moved out to the U.S. mainland annually during the 2013-
2017 period. The age group that showed the second highest domestic out-migration rate was the
25-34 age group. On average 7.9 percent of the 25-34 aged Hawaii residents moved out annually
to head to the U.S. mainland. The age group with the lowest domestic out-migration rate was
the population aged 65 and older. Merely 1.4 percent of Hawaii residents in this age segment
moved out annually to the U.S. mainland.
Race and Birthplace
An average of about 10 percent of White-alone population in Hawaii moved to the U.S.
mainland annually during the 2013-2017 period. This was about 5 times higher than the
propensity of Asian-alone or Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander-alone population in
Hawaii to move out to the U.S. mainland. A race that showed a propensity higher than the
propensity of White-alone was Other Race-alone, which included Black-alone population.
Migration patterns by the place of birth were quite similar to the patterns by race. Every year
during 2013-2017, about 11 percent of Hawaii residents who were born on the U.S. mainland
7 Migration of persons in ages 1 to 17 is likely to be dependent on the migration decision of older persons in
the household.
32
moved back to the mainland. Domestic out-migration rates of the Hawaii-born and foreign-born
population were much lower. Averagely, 1.9 percent of the Hawaii-born and 2.4 percent of the
foreign-born population moved out to other U.S. states annually during the 2013-2017 period.
Persons who were born in other U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin
Islands, or the Northern Marianas, moved out more frequently than the Hawaii-born or foreign-
born population although it was not comparable to the propensity of the mainland-born.
Educational Attainment
The propensity of Hawaii residents to migrate to other U.S. states increased with education. The
chart in Figure 18 shows the migration rates by educational attainment for the population aged
18 and over. To examine how final education affected the propensity to move out, those who
were attending a school at the time of the survey such as those who migrated to attend college
after high school graduation were excluded from the consideration. The demographic group with
less than a high school diploma was the least mobile showing only 1.8 percent of them moved
out to the U.S. mainland annually. The migration rate increased monotonically with education
level. The persons with a Master degree or higher education showed the highest propensity to
migrate indicating 5.4 percent of Hawaii residents in this education category moved out to the
U.S. mainland annually during the period.
Employment Status
As discussed earlier, employment status may have changed due to migration. Our interest in this
section is in learning how the employment status of the individual before or at the time of
migration affected the migration rate. Thus, instead of using the current employment status, we
used the employment status the individual had a year ago, which was before the migration.
Compared to the persons who worked in the past 12 months, the persons who were in the labor
forces but didn’t work at all in the past 12 months showed a much higher propensity to migrate.
Among the persons who were in the labor force at the time of the survey but never worked in the
past 12 months, 7.1 percent moved out to head to other U.S. states. The corresponding rate for
the persons who have worked even temporarily in the past 12 months was much lower at 4.4
percent.
Occupation
The last two charts in Figure 18 demonstrates how the propensity of Hawaii workers to migrate
to other U.S. States differed by occupation. While workers in Construction related or Sales and
Office occupations showed relatively a lower propensity to migrate, workers in Computer,
Engineering, and Science occupations, and workers in Education showed relatively a high
propensity to migrate. Especially, the distinctively higher out-migration rate of workers in
Computer, Engineering, and Science (CES) occupations would raise concerns as those are the
areas bringing innovation to the economy and the areas where the state has been putting effort to
enhance high-quality employment opportunities in Hawaii. During the 2013-2017 period, 7.1
percent of workers in the CES occupations moved out to head to other U.S. states annually, 2.9
percentage point higher than domestic out- migration rate of workers in all occupations.
33
Figure 18. Propensity of Hawaii residents to migrate out domestically, by characteristics
4.4%
4.9%
9.2%
7.9%
4.1%
2.5%
1.4%
All aged 1 & over
1-17
18-24
25-34
35-44
45-64
65plus
By Age
3.8%
3.7%
9.3%
7.0%
3.5%
2.2%
1.4%
All aged 1 & over
1-17
18-24
25-34
35-44
45-64
65plus
By Age
(excl. mil. personnel & their families)
4.4%
9.8%
1.6%
2.1%
17.3%
2.4%
All aged 1 & over
White-alone
Asian-alone
NH & Other PI-
alone
Other Race-alone
Two or More races
By Race
3.8%
8.8%
1.5%
2.0%
18.2%
2.2%
All aged 1 & over
White-alone
Asian-alone
NH & Other PI-
alone
Other Race-alone
Two or More races
By Race
(excl. mil. personnel & their families)
4.4%
1.9%
11.0%
4.5%
2.4%
All aged 1 & over
Hawaii-born
Mainland-born
Other US territory-
born
Foreign-born
By Birthplace
3.8%
1.6%
10.5%
4.1%
2.4%
All aged 1 & over
Hawaii-born
Mainland-born
Other US territory-
born
Foreign-born
By Birthplace
(excl. mil. personnel & their families)
34
Figure 18. continued
Source: Estimates based on U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2013-2017 5-year PUMS
3.6%
1.8%
3.0%
3.7%
4.2%
5.4%
All aged 18+ & not in
school
Less than HS diploma
HS diploma
Some college
BA degree
MA degree or higher
By Educational Attainment
3.1%
1.8%
2.6%
3.1%
3.6%
4.6%
All aged 18+ & not
in school
Less than HS diploma
HS diploma
Some college
BA degree
MA degree or higher
By Educational Attainment
(excl. mil. personnel & their families)
4.2%
4.4%
7.1%
3.7%
All aged 16 & over
Worked in the past 12
months
Didn't work in the past
12 months
Not in labor force
By Employment Status
in past 12 months
3.7%
3.8%
6.8%
3.4%
All aged 16 & over
Worked in the past 12
months
Didn't work in the past
12 months
Not in labor force
By Employment Status
in past 12 months
(excl. mil. personnel & their families)
4.2%
7.1%
5.1%
3.9%
4.3%
4.3%
3.4%
4.7%
4.6%
3.4%
Workers in all Occu.
Comp., Engi. &. Scie.
Education
Food Service
Health
Professional
Construction, etc.
Other Services
Production&Transp.
Sales and Office
By Occupation
3.6%
6.5%
4.2%
3.9%
3.6%
3.9%
2.9%
2.7%
4.3%
3.3%
Workers in all Occu.
Comp., Engi. &. Scie.
Education
Food Service
Health
Professional
Construction, etc.
Other Services
Production&Transp.
Sales and Office
By Occupation
(excl. mil. personnel & their families)
35
8.Concluding Observations
This report examined the overall moving behaviors of Hawaii residents and the characteristics of
three types of migrants; domestic in-migrants, domestic out-migrants, and international in-
migrants based on the American Community Survey covering the 2013-2017 period. Many
patterns were commonly observed in all three migrant groups; Migrants were all highly
concentrated in the young-age population. Compared to overall Hawaii residents, they included
more people with a college or higher education, more unemployed and more low-income
earners.
Military personnel and their families were the significant part of all three migrant groups. For
some reasons, their size was much bigger among domestic in-migrants than domestic out-
migrants suggesting that Hawaii’s loss to other states in the past several years was larger than
commonly known if only the population in civilian families were considered. For domestic
migration, not only in-migrants but also out-migrants were dominated by White-alone and
mainland-born population hinting possibly a large number of return migration among domestic
out-migrants.
The report also showed that the propensity of Hawaii residents to migrate out to the U.S.
mainland varied by characteristics. Both descriptive and regression analysis showed that the
young-age population and the more educated people had a higher propensity to move out, which
is in line with numerous previous migration studies. In addition to that, Hawaii's out-migration
patterns were dominantly affected by race and birthplace of the individual. The unemployed
were more likely to migrate than the employed. Also, the people in Computer, Engineering, and
Science occupations showed a higher propensity to migrate than people in other occupations.
Multiple studies have shown that people tend to stay home during the recession. Levy, at all
(2017) showed evidence that overall migration rates declined during the recession, despite large
regional differences in unemployment and growth rates. The period analyzed in this report was
an expanding period for the whole U.S. economy including Hawaii. In order to find out whether
the findings from this report were specific to the period, future studies may examine the
differences between the period of recession and the period of economic expansion in migration
patterns.
36
References
Benetsky, Megan J., and Alison Fields, Millennial Migration: How has the Great Recession
affected the migration of a cohort as it came of age?, U.S. Census Bureau, 2015, SEHSD
Working Paper No. 2015-01,
Benetsky, Megan J., Charlynn A. Burd, and Melanie A. Rapino, Young Adult Migration: 2007-
2009 to 2010-2012, U.S. Census Bureau, March 2015, ACS-31
Berg, K. F, Easing transitions of military dependents into Hawaii public school: An invitational
educational link, Journal of Invitational Theory and Practice, 2008, 14
Coen-Pirani, Daniele, Understanding Gross Worker Flows Across U.S. States, Journal of
Monetary Economics, October 2010, Volume 57, Issue 7
Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism, State of Hawaii, Hawaii’s
Migrant Population: 2006, June 2008
Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism, State of Hawaii, Population and
Economic Projections for the State of Hawaii to 2045, June 2018
Gillespie, Brian Joseph, Household Mobility in America; Patterns, Processes, and Outcomes,
2016
Hernandez-Murillo, Ruben, et al. Patterns of Interstate Migration in the United States from the
Survey of Income and Program Participation, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review,
May/June 2011, 93(3).
Ihrke, David, Do not Compare: Why 5-Year Migration Estimates from the Annual Social and
Economic Supplement of the Current Population Survey Are Not Comparable with 5-Year
Multiyear Migration Estimates from the American Community Survey?, U.S. Census Bureau,
2017, SEHSD Working Paper Number 2017-02
Kaplan, Greg, and Sam Schulhofer-Wohl, Understanding the Long-Run Decline in Interstate
Migration, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, 2015, Working Paper 697
Kodrzycki, Yolanda K., Migration of Recent College Graduates: Evidence from the National
Longitudinal Survey of Youth, New England Economic Review, January/February 2001
Levy Brian L, Mouw Ted, and Perez Anthony Daniel, Why Did People Move During the Great
Recession? The Role of Economics in Migration Decisions, The Russell Sage Foundation,
Journal of the Social Sciences, 2017
Wozniak, Abigail, Educational Differences in the Migration Responses of Young Workers to
Local Labor Market Conditions, January 2006, IZA Discussion Paper Series No. 1954
37
Appendix
Propensity to Migrate of Domestic Out-Migrants
: Logistic Regression Analysis
The descriptive statistics introduced in Section 7 illustrated how the propensity to migrate out
domestically was associated with the specific characteristic under examination. The relationship
between the characteristic and the propensity reflects not only the direct relation between the two
but also the indirect relation that the characteristic had through another characteristic related to
the propensity. For example, it would be possible that White-alone showed a higher propensity
to migrate because many of them were born on the mainland. Or, the individuals with a college
education showed a higher propensity to migrate out possibly because domestic out-migrants
included many mainland-born college graduates who came to Hawaii for a college education and
returned home after completing the education.
Multivariate regression analysis allows us to separate the indirect effects from the direct effects
by examining the impact of each characteristic with all other characteristics being held constant
(ceteris paribus). This appendix employs the binary logistic model to estimate the impact of each
characteristic variable on the propensity of Hawaii residents to migrate out domestically after
controlling for other factors.
When p is the probability of migration, the logistic model assumes a linear relationship between
the log-odds of the probability and the explanatory variables (X1,……., Xn ).
logit(p)=log ቀ ୮
ଵିቁ= α + β1X1 + -------+ βn Xn
The following ten categorical variables were examined as explanatory variables for the
propensity of Hawaii residents to migrate out domestically.
- Gender (reference group: male)
- Age (reference group: 55 and over)
- Marital Status (reference group: married)
- Children in the household (reference group: no child)
- Race (reference group: White-alone)
- Birthplace (reference group: Hawaii-born)
- Educational attainment: (reference group: high school diploma or less)
- School attendance (reference group: not in school)
- Employment status (reference group: worked in the past 12 months)
- Computer, Engineering and Science (CES) occupation (reference group: not in CES
occupation)
Table A-1 summarizes the regression results when we applied the model to explain out-
migration patterns of Hawaii residents aged 18 and over in civilian families excluding military
38
personnel and their families. The odds ratio in Table A-1 is the exponentiated version of the
logistic regression coefficient. When Xi is a categorical variable with two categories, A
(reference group) and B, the odds ratio of B is the odds of B’s domestically out-migrating
divided by the odds of A’s domestically out-migrating.
Overall, the regression results were consistent with what we found in the descriptive analysis
presented in Section 7. However, the differences in the propensity among the categories were
estimated at smaller scales. That’s because the multivariate regression model estimates the
partial effect of the characteristic when all other characteristics are controlled to be constant.
As in the descriptive analysis, the propensity to move out was not affected by gender while the
age of the individual was one of the most significant factors explaining the propensity to migrate.
Even after controlling all other characteristics, the odds of domestically moving out for the age
18-24 group was more than 9 times as high as the odds for the reference age group, 55 years and
over. The odds for the persons in the age 25-34 were lower but still more than five times as high
than the odds for the reference group.
Two other characteristics that had very strong explanatory power were race and birthplace. After
controlling all other factors, the odds for White-alone’s moving out was about 2.5 times higher
than the odds for Asian-alone or Two or More race-mixed and 2 times higher than the odds for
Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander-alone. By birthplace, the odds of the mainland-born’s
moving out was almost 4 times higher than the odds of Hawaii-born’s moving out. The odds for
those who were born in other U.S. territories or in foreign countries were also about 2 times
higher than the odds for the Hawaii-born.
Regression results also showed that the employment status and occupation affected a person’s
propensity to move out even after controlling for other factors. Controlling for all other
characteristics, the odds of moving out for those who didn’t work at all in the past 12 months
was nearly two times higher than the odds for those who have worked in the past 12 months.
The model also tested whether the persons in Computer, Engineering, and Science (CES)
occupations were associated with a higher propensity to move out after controlling for other
factors. The result showed that the odds of moving out for the persons in CES occupations was
1.5 times as high as the odds for the persons in non-CES occupations.
The propensity to move out domestically increased with education with all other factors,
including school attendance, controlled, but the higher mobility was statistically significant only
for the persons with a Master degree or higher education.
A characteristic that exhibited a propensity pattern that was different from the descriptive
analysis was marital status. When the propensity was calculated as in Section 7, excluding
military personnel and their families, the propensity of those who never married to move out
domestically was 5.2 percent, distinctively higher than the propensity of those who married (3.2
percent) and those who were widowed/ divorced/ separated (3.0 percent). This was possibly
because the young age population had a very high propensity to move out and many of them
were not married yet. The regression result showed that, controlling age and all other
39
characteristics of the individual, the odds of moving out was actually 26 percent lower for those
who never married and 28 percent higher for those who were widowed/ divorced/ separated than
the odds for those who were married.
Table A-1. Logistic regression results
(Dependent variable=1 if the individual moved out to the mainland, 0 if stayed in Hawaii)
Explanatory variables Odds ratio
Gender (reference group: Male)
Female 1.04
Age (reference group: 55 and over)
Age: 18-24 9.53**
Age: 25-34 5.63**
Age: 35-44 2.65**
Age: 45-54 1.50**
Marital status (reference group: married)
Widowed/divorced/separated 1.28*
Never married 0.74**
Children (reference group: no children in household)
With children 0.72**
Race (reference group: White-alone)
Race: Asian-alone 0.38**
Race: Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander-alone 0.50**
Race: Other Race-alone 1.77**
Race: Two or More races 0.40**
Birthplace (reference group: Hawaii-born)
Birthplace: mainland-born 3.83**
Birthplace: Other U.S. territories-born 2.59**
Birthplace: Foreign-born 1.79**
Education (reference group: less than a HS diploma)
Education: HS diploma 1.27
Education: Some college 1.17
Education: BA degree 1.31
Education: MA degree or higher 1.62**
School attendance (reference group: not in school)
In school 1.77**
Employment (reference group: worked in past 12 months)
Employment: Didn’t work in past 12 months 1.81**
Employment: Not in labor force 1.19
Occupation (reference group: not in C/E/S occupations)
Occupation: Computer, Engineering, or Science 1.46**
Number of observations 53,445
** : significant at the 0.01 level, * : significant at the 0.05 level