Lawai vs Wailua

A side-by-side comparison of Lawai and Wailua: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Lawai has the higher population (2,775 vs 2,544 in Wailua). Lawai has the higher median household income ($104,826 vs $68,548 in Wailua). Lawai has the higher median home value ($853,700 vs $697,300 in Wailua).

Population, income & housing

	Lawai	Wailua
Population	2,775	2,544
Median age	38.4 yrs	45.8 yrs
Median household income	$104,826	$68,548
Median home value	$853,700	$697,300
Median gross rent	$1,917	$2,272
Housing units	933	1,517
Homeownership rate	72.4%	58.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	35.5%	26.3%
Unemployment rate	10.5%	8.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Lawai	Wailua
Population	2,047 → 2,775 (+35.6%)	2,915 → 2,544 (-12.7%)
Median household income	$75,313 → $104,826 (+39.2%)	$56,927 → $68,548 (+20.4%)
Median home value	$589,200 → $853,700 (+44.9%)	$492,800 → $697,300 (+41.5%)
Median gross rent	$1,714 → $1,917 (+11.8%)	$1,430 → $2,272 (+58.9%)

Lawai

Population

2,0472,775

Median household income

$75,313$104,826

Median home value

$589,200$853,700

Median gross rent

$1,714$1,917

Wailua

Population

2,9152,544

Median household income

$56,927$68,548

Median home value

$492,800$697,300

Median gross rent

$1,430$2,272

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Lawai	Wailua
Under 5	7.3%	2.9%
5 to 17	16.2%	14.8%
18 to 24	10.4%	8.1%
25 to 34	12.7%	11.2%
35 to 44	12.9%	12.0%
45 to 54	8.0%	10.8%
55 to 64	15.0%	14.7%
65 to 74	10.6%	15.9%
75 and over	6.8%	9.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Lawai	Wailua
White (non-Hispanic)	33.6%	38.3%
Black or African American	0.0%	1.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	14.3%	19.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	5.7%	2.7%
Some other race	0.4%	0.0%
Two or more races	20.2%	15.5%
Hispanic or Latino	25.8%	23.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Lawai	Wailua
No high school diploma	2.8%	7.4%
High school graduate	19.6%	34.4%
Some college or associate's	42.1%	31.9%
Bachelor's degree	22.0%	17.9%
Graduate or professional degree	13.5%	8.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Lawai	Wailua
Drove alone	67.7%	73.3%
Carpooled	7.1%	15.4%
Public transit	3.8%	1.1%
Walked	0.0%	2.9%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	21.3%	7.3%
Other means	0.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Lawai	Wailua
1-unit, detached	90.2%	55.0%
1-unit, attached	6.2%	3.3%
2 to 4 units	2.1%	4.8%
5 to 19 units	1.4%	4.2%
20 or more units	0.0%	32.6%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Lawai	Wailua
Poverty rate	8.9%	20.5%
Average household size	3.32	2.67
Mean commute (minutes)	20	23
Median year structure built	1983	1976