Kailua vs Pearl City

A side-by-side comparison of Kailua and Pearl City: population, income, housing, and more.

Kailua and Pearl City are places in Hawaii. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Pearl City has the higher population (45,079 vs 39,762 in Kailua). Kailua has the higher median household income ($146,615 vs $114,682 in Pearl City). Kailua has the higher median home value ($1,239,000 vs $872,200 in Pearl City).

Population, income & housing

	Kailua	Pearl City
Population	39,762	45,079
Median age	43.1 yrs	45.0 yrs
Median household income	$146,615	$114,682
Median home value	$1,239,000	$872,200
Median gross rent	$3,068	$2,338
Housing units	14,672	15,521
Homeownership rate	74.4%	70.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	54.7%	37.0%
Unemployment rate	3.5%	3.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Kailua	Pearl City
Population	37,586 → 39,762 (+5.8%)	45,605 → 45,079 (-1.2%)
Median household income	$114,292 → $146,615 (+28.3%)	$100,057 → $114,682 (+14.6%)
Median home value	$959,200 → $1,239,000 (+29.2%)	$667,000 → $872,200 (+30.8%)
Median gross rent	$2,500 → $3,068 (+22.7%)	$1,908 → $2,338 (+22.5%)

Kailua

Population

37,58639,762

Median household income

$114,292$146,615

Median home value

$959,200$1,239,000

Median gross rent

$2,500$3,068

Pearl City

Population

45,60545,079

Median household income

$100,057$114,682

Median home value

$667,000$872,200

Median gross rent

$1,908$2,338

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Kailua	Pearl City
Under 5	5.4%	4.7%
5 to 17	15.8%	13.6%
18 to 24	5.9%	7.5%
25 to 34	10.7%	11.8%
35 to 44	15.3%	12.5%
45 to 54	11.6%	11.7%
55 to 64	12.9%	12.5%
65 to 74	12.2%	12.9%
75 and over	10.2%	12.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Kailua	Pearl City
White (non-Hispanic)	41.4%	9.8%
Black or African American	0.5%	1.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.1%
Asian	21.5%	53.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	4.2%	6.6%
Some other race	1.0%	0.3%
Two or more races	24.6%	20.4%
Hispanic or Latino	6.6%	7.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Kailua	Pearl City
No high school diploma	2.4%	5.5%
High school graduate	17.6%	25.8%
Some college or associate's	25.3%	31.7%
Bachelor's degree	28.7%	25.7%
Graduate or professional degree	26.0%	11.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Kailua	Pearl City
Drove alone	72.8%	72.2%
Carpooled	11.0%	13.5%
Public transit	2.1%	3.0%
Walked	1.4%	1.9%
Bicycle	0.6%	0.1%
Worked from home	11.5%	7.8%
Other means	0.6%	1.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Kailua	Pearl City
1-unit, detached	74.1%	63.5%
1-unit, attached	9.1%	15.2%
2 to 4 units	4.9%	6.5%
5 to 19 units	3.6%	5.6%
20 or more units	8.3%	9.1%
Mobile home & other	0.1%	0.2%

Poverty & households

	Kailua	Pearl City
Poverty rate	4.1%	6.2%
Average household size	2.91	2.98
Mean commute (minutes)	29	27
Median year structure built	1966	1974