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Paia, HI

This is a small community in a single neighborhood. As throughout the site, some neighborhood-level data are reserved for subscribers.





Overview


Paia is a very small coastal town (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of Hawaii. With a population of 2,470 people and just one neighborhood, Paia is the 47th largest community in Hawaii.

Paia home prices are not only among the most expensive in Hawaii, but Paia real estate also consistently ranks among the most expensive in America.

Occupations and Workforce

Unlike some towns where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Paia is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Paia is a town of sales and office workers, service providers, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Paia who work in management occupations (16.77%), sales jobs (14.07%), and office and administrative support (12.64%).

One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 20.24% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.

Setting & Lifestyle

The town is relatively quiet, having a combination of lower population density and few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. For example, Paia has relatively fewer families with younger children, and/or college students. Combined, this makes Paia a pretty quiet place to live overall. If you like quiet, you will probably enjoy it here.

Paia is also nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Such areas are often places that visitors and locals go for waterfront activities or taking in the scenery.

Demographics

The education level of Paia citizens is very high relative to the national average among all cities (21.84%): 35.02% of adults in Paia have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.

The per capita income in Paia in 2022 was $46,999, which is wealthy relative to Hawaii and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $187,996 for a family of four. However, Paia contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Paia is an extremely ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Paia home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Paia residents report their race to be White, followed by Native Hawaiian. Important ancestries of people in Paia include German, Portuguese, Irish, Danish, and English.

Paia also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 15.11%.

The most common language spoken in Paia is English. Other important languages spoken here include Pacific Island languages and Polish.

Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics

The way a neighborhood looks and feels when you walk or drive around it, from its setting, its buildings, and its flavor, can make all the difference. This neighborhood has some really cool things about the way it looks and feels as revealed by NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research. This might include anything from the housing stock to the types of households living here to how people get around.

Real Estate

is a neighborhood that is on the ocean, a bay, or inlet. Many times, such places have amenities that bring locals and visitors to the waterfront for recreational activities or to check out the scenery. In some densely populated areas that are less financially well-off, the neighborhood waterfront can be relatively industrial and less open to recreation. In addition to being coastal, is a very nautical neighborhood, meaning that it is somewhat historic, walkable, densely populated and on the water. This gives the neighborhood a very nautical feel, with some seaside and shipping feel, which some may really enjoy the sights and sounds of.

People

Of note is NeighborhoodScout's research finding that the neighborhood has some of the lowest rates of children living in poverty of any neighborhood in the United States. In a nation where approximately 1 in 4 children are living in poverty, the community truly stands out from the rest in this regard.

Diversity

Did you know that the neighborhood has more Portuguese and Danish ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 7.5% of this neighborhood's residents have Portuguese ancestry and 5.0% have Danish ancestry.

is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 0.6% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Japanese at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 95.1% of the neighborhoods in America.

The Neighbors

There are two complementary measures for understanding the income of a neighborhood's residents: the average and the extremes. While a neighborhood may be relatively wealthy overall, it is equally important to understand the rate of people - particularly children - who are living at or below the federal poverty line, which is extremely low income. Some neighborhoods with a lower average income may actually have a lower childhood poverty rate than another with a higher average income, and this helps us understand the conditions and character of a neighborhood.

The neighbors in the neighborhood in Paia are upper-middle income, making it an above average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 83.4% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 0.0% of the children seventeen and under living in this neighborhood are living below the federal poverty line, which is a lower rate of childhood poverty than is found in 100.0% of America's neighborhoods.

A neighborhood is far different if it is dominated by enlisted military personnel rather than people who earn their living by farming. It is also different if most of the neighbors are clerical support or managers. What is wonderful is the sheer diversity of neighborhoods, allowing you to find the type that fits your lifestyle and aspirations.

In the neighborhood, 29.4% of the working population is employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is executive, management, and professional occupations, with 28.0% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (25.4%), and 16.3% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.

Languages

The languages spoken by people in this neighborhood are diverse. These are tabulated as the languages people preferentially speak when they are at home with their families. The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 85.7% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Polish and Tagalog (the first language of the Philippine region).

Ethnicity / Ancestry

Culture is shared learned behavior. We learn it from our parents, their parents, our houses of worship, and much of our culture – our learned behavior – comes from our ancestors. That is why ancestry and ethnicity can be so interesting and important to understand: places with concentrations of people of one or more ancestries often express those shared learned behaviors and this gives each neighborhood its own culture. Even different neighborhoods in the same city can have drastically different cultures.

In the neighborhood in Paia, HI, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Asian (16.7%). There are also a number of people of German ancestry (8.0%), and residents who report Portuguese roots (7.5%), and some of the residents are also of Irish ancestry (5.9%), along with some Danish ancestry residents (5.0%), among others. In addition, 15.1% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.

Getting to Work

How you get to work – car, bus, train or other means – and how much of your day it takes to do so is a large quality of life and financial issue. Especially with gasoline prices rising and expected to continue doing so, the length and means of one's commute can be a financial burden. Some neighborhoods are physically located so that many residents have to drive in their own car, others are set up so many walk to work, or can take a train, bus, or bike. The greatest number of commuters in neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (46.7% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.

Here most residents (64.2%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors to get to work (11.5%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.


Real Estate includes:
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Neighborhood Setting
Economics & Demographics include:
Lifestyle & Special Character
Household Types
Commute To Work
Migration & Mobility
Race & Ethnic Diversity
Employment Industries & Occupations
Income & Unemployment Rate
Higher Education Attainment
Crime includes:
Neighborhood Crime Index
Crimes Per Square Mile
Property Crime Comparison
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Schools include:
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