Pearl City vs Waipahu

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

Pearl City and Waipahu 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 39,871 in Waipahu). Pearl City has the higher median household income ($114,682 vs $98,633 in Waipahu). Pearl City has the higher median home value ($872,200 vs $835,400 in Waipahu).

Population, income & housing

	Pearl City	Waipahu
Population	45,079	39,871
Median age	45.0 yrs	39.7 yrs
Median household income	$114,682	$98,633
Median home value	$872,200	$835,400
Median gross rent	$2,338	$1,585
Housing units	15,521	9,486
Homeownership rate	70.7%	59.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	37.0%	18.6%
Unemployment rate	3.2%	4.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Pearl City	Waipahu
Population	45,605 → 45,079 (-1.2%)	39,469 → 39,871 (+1.0%)
Median household income	$100,057 → $114,682 (+14.6%)	$78,204 → $98,633 (+26.1%)
Median home value	$667,000 → $872,200 (+30.8%)	$626,600 → $835,400 (+33.3%)
Median gross rent	$1,908 → $2,338 (+22.5%)	$1,343 → $1,585 (+18.0%)

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

Waipahu

Population

39,46939,871

Median household income

$78,204$98,633

Median home value

$626,600$835,400

Median gross rent

$1,343$1,585

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Pearl City	Waipahu
Under 5	4.7%	6.3%
5 to 17	13.6%	14.9%
18 to 24	7.5%	8.5%
25 to 34	11.8%	14.6%
35 to 44	12.5%	11.0%
45 to 54	11.7%	12.5%
55 to 64	12.5%	11.4%
65 to 74	12.9%	9.6%
75 and over	12.8%	11.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Pearl City	Waipahu
White (non-Hispanic)	9.8%	2.8%
Black or African American	1.7%	0.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	53.2%	67.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	6.6%	12.9%
Some other race	0.3%	0.2%
Two or more races	20.4%	10.7%
Hispanic or Latino	7.9%	6.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Pearl City	Waipahu
No high school diploma	5.5%	14.8%
High school graduate	25.8%	35.5%
Some college or associate's	31.7%	31.0%
Bachelor's degree	25.7%	14.0%
Graduate or professional degree	11.3%	4.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Pearl City	Waipahu
Drove alone	72.2%	59.6%
Carpooled	13.5%	16.9%
Public transit	3.0%	12.2%
Walked	1.9%	3.0%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.0%
Worked from home	7.8%	4.2%
Other means	1.6%	4.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Pearl City	Waipahu
1-unit, detached	63.5%	49.2%
1-unit, attached	15.2%	13.0%
2 to 4 units	6.5%	7.8%
5 to 19 units	5.6%	17.5%
20 or more units	9.1%	12.0%
Mobile home & other	0.2%	0.5%

Poverty & households

	Pearl City	Waipahu
Poverty rate	6.2%	11.4%
Average household size	2.98	4.32
Mean commute (minutes)	27	32
Median year structure built	1974	1971