Kailua vs Urban Honolulu

A side-by-side comparison of Kailua and Urban Honolulu: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Urban Honolulu has the higher population (346,323 vs 39,762 in Kailua). Kailua has the higher median household income ($146,615 vs $85,428 in Urban Honolulu). Kailua has the higher median home value ($1,239,000 vs $834,100 in Urban Honolulu).

Population, income & housing

	Kailua	Urban Honolulu
Population	39,762	346,323
Median age	43.1 yrs	42.9 yrs
Median household income	$146,615	$85,428
Median home value	$1,239,000	$834,100
Median gross rent	$3,068	$1,783
Housing units	14,672	156,251
Homeownership rate	74.4%	48.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	54.7%	40.8%
Unemployment rate	3.5%	5.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Kailua	Urban Honolulu
Population	37,586 → 39,762 (+5.8%)	348,985 → 346,323 (-0.8%)
Median household income	$114,292 → $146,615 (+28.3%)	$71,465 → $85,428 (+19.5%)
Median home value	$959,200 → $1,239,000 (+29.2%)	$683,000 → $834,100 (+22.1%)
Median gross rent	$2,500 → $3,068 (+22.7%)	$1,491 → $1,783 (+19.6%)

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

Urban Honolulu

Population

348,985346,323

Median household income

$71,465$85,428

Median home value

$683,000$834,100

Median gross rent

$1,491$1,783

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Kailua	Urban Honolulu
Under 5	5.4%	4.5%
5 to 17	15.8%	11.9%
18 to 24	5.9%	7.8%
25 to 34	10.7%	14.8%
35 to 44	15.3%	13.8%
45 to 54	11.6%	12.8%
55 to 64	12.9%	12.8%
65 to 74	12.2%	11.5%
75 and over	10.2%	10.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Kailua	Urban Honolulu
White (non-Hispanic)	41.4%	15.8%
Black or African American	0.5%	1.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.1%
Asian	21.5%	52.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	4.2%	8.2%
Some other race	1.0%	0.3%
Two or more races	24.6%	14.9%
Hispanic or Latino	6.6%	6.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Kailua	Urban Honolulu
No high school diploma	2.4%	9.1%
High school graduate	17.6%	22.8%
Some college or associate's	25.3%	27.3%
Bachelor's degree	28.7%	25.2%
Graduate or professional degree	26.0%	15.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Kailua	Urban Honolulu
Drove alone	72.8%	55.7%
Carpooled	11.0%	14.2%
Public transit	2.1%	7.9%
Walked	1.4%	7.7%
Bicycle	0.6%	1.8%
Worked from home	11.5%	8.9%
Other means	0.6%	3.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Kailua	Urban Honolulu
1-unit, detached	74.1%	27.2%
1-unit, attached	9.1%	7.3%
2 to 4 units	4.9%	5.5%
5 to 19 units	3.6%	11.5%
20 or more units	8.3%	48.2%
Mobile home & other	0.1%	0.3%

Poverty & households

	Kailua	Urban Honolulu
Poverty rate	4.1%	11.9%
Average household size	2.91	2.47
Mean commute (minutes)	29	22
Median year structure built	1966	1973