Photo: ECTran71 · CC BY-SA 4.0Eleele has higher household incomes than 87% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 0% of workers; Hawaii has 10%. The poverty rate is 6.1%, next to 10.0% for Hawaii as a whole. For jobs and income Eleele is better than 68% of U.S. towns (B+); for walkability it is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns (B).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Eleele stands out on work
Eleele’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Eleele is Urban Honolulu, 119 miles away as the crow flies. 22% of working residents (212) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
A big share show a job far from home
37% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Stores, warehouses and trucking
48% of the jobs in Eleele are in trade, transport and utilities, against 16% of the jobs its residents hold. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 978 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Eleele earns its Jobs & income grade
Household income holds Eleele’s grade up ($118,438, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 12% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate and unemployment.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Eleele could be anywhere from C+ to A−.
Near or far: the trip to work from Eleele
About 37% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
What work there is in Eleele: 570 jobs
570 jobs are based in Eleele.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Eleele, 2013 → 2023: 446 → 570. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Eleele’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How a workday changes Eleele
On a workday 925 residents head out to work, 53 work right here, and 517 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,100 people are in Eleele on a workday afternoon, 16% fewer than live here.
0.58 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
22% of working residents work in Urban Honolulu
Where Eleele clocks in
14% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
How long Eleele spends getting to work: about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Eleele workers work from home, vs 10% across Hawaii. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,318 commuters (the 1% who work from home are left out). Across Hawaii: 72% drive alone, 4% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Few in Eleele walk, bike or ride to work
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,325 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 4.0% of Eleele households have no vehicle (Hawaii 8.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Eleele’s commuters take a bus or train.
Eleele next to U.S. towns of 1,800 to 3,400: 1,259th of 4,868 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 66 | Maunawili HI | 2,024 | $177K | 1.6% | 1.6% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 416 | Wheeler AFB HI | 2,097 | $92K | 1.3% | 4.9% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,257 | Trempealeau WI | 1,889 | $79K | 6.7% | 2.1% | 3% | B+ |
| 1,258 | Fairfield Township PA | 2,806 | $73K | 7.1% | 2.3% | 7% | B+ |
| 1,259 | Eleele HI | 2,522 | $118K | 6.1% | 2.7% | 5% | B+ |
| 1,260 | Chapin SC | 1,945 | $80K | 7.5% | 2.6% | 7% | B+ |
| 1,261 | Fugit Township IN | 1,894 | $94K | 2.9% | 0.0% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,636 | Lanai City HI | 3,393 | $92K | 6.7% | 2.2% | 32% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 4,868 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Eleele, the top three, the last and three more from Hawaii.
Eleele and its neighbors
The biggest share goes to Hanapepe (3%).
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Eleele’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Eleele: questions
What is the median household income in Eleele?
$118,438 (±$15,116) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $100,389 across Hawaii and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Eleele?
6.1%, against 10.0% across Hawaii and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Eleele?
25 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Hawaii and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Eleele work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Urban Honolulu (22%, 118 mi), Poipu (17%, 8 mi), Lihue (14%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Eleele walkable?
Eleele is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.8 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Eleele without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Eleele, from the people who make the trip.
More of Eleele
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.