Poipu’s household incomes are higher than in 94% of U.S. towns
8.5% of residents are in poverty, against 10.0% across Hawaii. Jobs and income earn Poipu B; getting around on foot earns it B. About one in five work in Poipu itself; outside it, Lihue draws the most (15%, 9 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Poipu apart
Poipu fills up on a workday
Poipu has 2,843 jobs, 5.9 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 3,500 people are in town, 3 times the 1,200 who live here. Day and night ↓
Poipu and Lihue trade workers both ways
Lihue is the top workplace for Poipu residents (15%) and also where the most people who work in Poipu come from (13% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Most Poipu residents work close to home
60% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 484 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Poipu earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Poipu is better than 60% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Poipu’s grade up ($143,333, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 18% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate.
Unemployment (1.3%) is left out: Poipu’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, Poipu could be anywhere from B− to A−.
Who commutes out of Poipu, and who commutes in
On a workday 382 residents head out to work, 102 work right here, and 2,741 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,500 people are in Poipu on a workday afternoon, 201% more than live here.
5.9 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 2024, primary jobs.
Where Poipu’s workers come from
Where Poipu clocks in
15% of workers
10% 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Poipu
About 30% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Poipu is a services town
2,843 jobs are based in Poipu.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Poipu, 2014 → 2024: 2,927 → 2,843. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Poipu’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Poipu: about 17 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Poipu workers work from home, vs 10% across Hawaii. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 383 commuters (the 22% 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.
Poipu is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Poipu is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 14.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 10.0% across Hawaii, on an EPA index of 5.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 491 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). 6.3% of Poipu households have no vehicle (Hawaii 8.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Poipu’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Poipu is 1,041st among 4,312 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600
| # | 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% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 285 | Mahinahina HI | 1,027 | $163K | 1.8% | 6.3% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 392 | Kaanapali HI | 1,170 | $129K | 4.5% | 17.6% | 25% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 756 | Omao HI | 1,528 | $102K | 3.1% | 7.6% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,039 | Strafford VT | 1,092 | $111K | 5.2% | 3.3% | 4% | B |
| 1,040 | Rose Township OH | 1,497 | $89K | 8.3% | 2.9% | 2% | B |
| 1,041 | Poipu HI | 1,175 | $143K | 8.5% | 1.3% | 21% | B |
| 1,042 | Bangor WI | 1,564 | $81K | 8.6% | 2.7% | 3% | B |
| 1,043 | Franklin Township IN | 1,326 | $95K | 7.6% | 0.0% | 2% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 1% | 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 Poipu, the top three, the last and three more from Hawaii.
Bordering towns draw 10% of Poipu’s workers
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Koloa. Darker towns draw more of Poipu’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 2024, 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 Poipu: questions
What is the median household income in Poipu?
$143,333 (±$25,349) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $100,389 across Hawaii and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Poipu?
8.5%, against 10.0% across Hawaii and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Poipu?
17 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Hawaii and 26 nationally. 22% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Poipu work?
21% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lihue (15%, 9 mi), Urban Honolulu (15%, 110 mi), Koloa (10%, 1 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Poipu walkable?
Poipu is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 5.2 out of 20, and 15% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Poipu without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Poipu, from the people who make the trip.
More of Poipu
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.