Photo: No machine-readable author provided. Jiang assumed (based on copyright claims). · Public domain41% of Laie’s residents are college students
Family incomes here are higher than in 85% of U.S. towns. The two grades for Laie are B for jobs and income and A+ for walkability. For a town this walkable, transit is thin: about 3.4 trips an hour at the evening peak near the typical resident, next to 16.6 in Urban Honolulu.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Laie, in a few figures
Laie has far more jobs than workers
Laie has 1,583 jobs, 7.3 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Laie and Urban Honolulu trade workers both ways
Urban Honolulu is the top workplace for Laie residents (23%) and also where the most people who work in Laie come from (33% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
The biggest group of Laie’s workers comes from Urban Honolulu
521 of the people who work in Laie live in Urban Honolulu, 23 miles away, more than from any other town. The commute map ↓
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 218 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The figures behind Laie’s Jobs & income grade
On family income, poverty and job access, Laie is better than 58% of U.S. towns, #42 of 93 in Hawaii. Family income holds Laie’s grade up ($133,654, U.S. $99,999); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 17% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate.
Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (20% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 7.8%, against 12.2% for all residents. Unemployment (6.1%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($133,654), since student households pull the household median down ($125,202).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Laie could be anywhere from C to A−.
How many people are in Laie by day
On a workday 172 residents head out to work, 46 work right here, and 1,537 people come in from elsewhere.
About 7,100 people are in Laie on a workday afternoon, 24% more than live here.
7.3 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
Where Laie’s workers come from
Where Laie clocks in
Lines 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.
Most jobs in Laie are in services
1,583 jobs are based in Laie.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Laie, 2013 → 2023: 2,393 → 1,583. 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 Laie’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily trip from Laie: about 16 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Laie workers work from home, vs 10% across Hawaii. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,737 commuters (the 11% 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.
How far Laie goes to work
About 28% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Laie
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Laie is among the most walkable U.S. towns, #1 of 93 in Hawaii. Both inputs place Laie near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,073 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). Nearly all residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 71% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 3.4 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 78% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 10.5% of Laie households have no vehicle (Hawaii 8.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Laie’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 3,476 U.S. towns of 4,000 to 7,700, Laie comes 1,635th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 94 | Waikele HI | 7,528 | $121K | 3.7% | 1.3% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 159 | Heeia HI | 5,144 | $176K | 3.3% | 2.4% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 322 | East Kapolei HI | 7,551 | $119K | 5.3% | 2.5% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,633 | Congress Township OH | 4,460 | $72K | 8.7% | 3.8% | 6% | B |
| 1,634 | Coal City IL | 5,831 | $73K | 4.4% | 6.1% | 10% | B |
| 1,635 | Laie HI | 5,699 | $125K | 12.2% | 6.1% | 21% | B |
| 1,636 | Sugar Loaf Township IL | 6,601 | $73K | 6.2% | 8.1% | 8% | B |
| 1,637 | Cambridge Township MI | 5,763 | $77K | 4.8% | 3.9% | 8% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 3,476 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Laie, the top three, the last and three more from Hawaii.
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.
- Students. 41% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Laie: questions
What is the median household income in Laie?
$125,202 (±$15,449) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $100,389 across Hawaii and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Laie?
12.2% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 7.8%. Hawaii: 10.0%.
How long is the commute from Laie?
16 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Hawaii and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Laie work?
21% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Urban Honolulu (23%, 23 mi), Hilo (6%, 228 mi), Ko Olina (3%, 25 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Laie walkable?
Laie is among the most walkable U.S. towns (Walkability A+): an EPA walkability index of 13.0 out of 20, and 50% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Laie without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. 71% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Laie, from the people who make the trip.
More of Laie
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.