Pahoa has 5.8 jobs for every working resident: 642 people commute in to work
654 jobs are based in Pahoa, against 113 working residents. Jobs and income earn Pahoa D−; getting around on foot earns it C+. Measured by household income, Pahoa is behind 80% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Why Pahoa gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Pahoa is better than 2% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Pahoa’s grade up ($56,042, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (near the bottom of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (7.5%) is left out: Pahoa’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Pahoa could be anywhere from D− to D.
Pahoa fills up on a workday
On a workday 101 residents head out to work and 12 work right here.
About 1,900 people are in Pahoa on a workday afternoon, 40% more than live here.
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 the people who work in Pahoa live
Where Pahoa 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.
Jobs in Pahoa: what the 654 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Pahoa, 2013 → 2023: 317 → 654. 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 Pahoa’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Pahoa spends getting to work: about 28 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Pahoa workers work from home, vs 10% across Hawaii. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 472 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.
The distance from Pahoa to work
About 48% 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.
In Pahoa, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Pahoa is more walkable than 40% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 10.0% across Hawaii, on an EPA index of 4.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 477 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). 8.3% of Pahoa households have no vehicle (Hawaii 8.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Pahoa’s commuters take a bus or train.
Pahoa and other U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,800
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 301 | Ko Olina HI | 1,670 | $133K | 6.8% | 0.8% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 371 | Mahinahina HI | 1,027 | $163K | 1.8% | 6.3% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 511 | Kaanapali HI | 1,170 | $129K | 4.5% | 17.6% | 27% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,191 | Ivanhoe TX | 1,376 | $52K | 32.7% | 8.5% | 1% | D− |
| 5,192 | Springfield Township MI | 1,640 | $49K | 27.6% | 2.7% | 1% | D− |
| 5,193 | Pahoa HI | 1,361 | $56K | 34.7% | 7.5% | 11% | D− |
| 5,194 | Iyanbito NM | 1,233 | $53K | 32.2% | 15.4% | 3% | D− |
| 5,195 | Shell Valley ND | 1,243 | $47K | 21.5% | 9.8% | <1% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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 Pahoa, the top three, the last and three more from Hawaii.
Around Pahoa: the bordering towns
The biggest share goes to Hawaiian Beaches (2%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Pahoa workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pahoa | – | D− | C+ | 28 min | $56,042 |
| Hawaiian Beaches | 2% | D− | C+ | 43 min | $29,295 |
| Nanawale Estates | under 2% | D− | B− | 36 min | $26,683 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Pahoa’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 Pahoa: questions
What is the median household income in Pahoa?
$56,042 (±$30,590) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $100,389 across Hawaii and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Pahoa?
34.7%, against 10.0% across Hawaii and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Pahoa?
28 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Hawaii and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Pahoa work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Hilo (29%, 16 mi), Urban Honolulu (18%, 226 mi), Wailuku (3%, 139 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Pahoa walkable?
Pahoa is more walkable than 40% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 4.8 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Pahoa without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Pahoa, from the people who make the trip.
More of Pahoa
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.