Pacific Islander ranks small, but growing fast

By Dennis Camire
Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON — The population of Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders is growing at almost double the national population rate, the U.S. Census Bureau reported yesterday.

The group, which includes people who reported being of more than one race, grew at a 1.7 percent clip in the year ending July 1, 2004, while the nation as a whole expanded by 1 percent, according to census estimates.

However, the nation's estimated 976,000 Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders — up from 960,000 on July 1, 2003 — remain a tiny percentage of the U.S. population of 294 million.

"We're still pretty small," said state economist Pearl Imada Iboshi.

A major factor for the continuing increase was a Census Bureau change in 2000 that gave people the opportunity to choose more than one race to describe themselves, Imada Iboshi said.

"I think that is the most important thing that the Census Bureau has done," she said. "For Hawai'i, that was huge because about 25 percent of the people said they were more than one race."

Another factor in the increase is the relatively high rate of immigration from Samoa, Tonga, Micronesia and other Pacific areas, Imada Iboshi said. In 2003, for example, about 4,300 Pacific Islanders legally immigrated to the United States.

The increase for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders was the nation's third-highest. The Hispanic population grew by 3.6 percent to 41.3 million during the reported year, followed by Asians, who saw a 3.4 percent increase to 14 million.

Since the 2000 census, the number of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders has grown by 7.6 percent, compared with a national population increase of 4.3 percent.

In an age breakdown of race and ethnic groups, about 17 percent of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, about 170,000, were children of elementary-school age (5 to 13 years) — the highest proportion of any of the groups. Nationwide, 12 percent of the population, about 35.4 million, were in this age range.

The number of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders age 18 or older grew to 611,000 in 2004, an increase of 16,000. The population age 65 and older increased by 2,000, to 55,000.