City safety & data profile
HiloHI
Hilo, HI is a 43K-resident city in Hawaii County with a median household income of $81,779.
Hawaii County, Hawaii. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Hilo, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Hilo has a population larger than 76% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $483,000, and 1 hospital serving the surrounding area.
- 43K
- Population (place)
- Top 24%
- By size
- $81,779
- Median income (place)
- $483,000
- Median home (place)
- 14.5%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Hilo
Hilo posts a median household income higher than 51% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 1 hospital serves the Hilo area.
- Top 49%
- by median income, US cities
- 1
- hospital in & near Hilo
Composite score · Hilo, HI
53/100
4 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2024
A transparent index Areazine derives from Census ACS medians (income, poverty, bachelor's share) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when published, not an official Census Bureau or FBI rating. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability rating, not a recommendation to move to or avoid any place. Missing inputs drop out and redistribute weight. How it is calculated.
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents. State-level rate (per-city UCR reporting is incomplete/voluntary): every city in the state shares this value; lower is stronger on this axis.
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS 5-Year Estimates.
Median household income vs cities tracked on Areazine; ACS 5-Year Estimates.
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis. ACS 5-Year Estimates.
Curious how Hilo stacks up nationwide? See the full tables: Healthiest Cities in America (health outcomes only) · Community Wellbeing Cities (this page's blended composite).
Where Hilo income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$81,779 Top 49% higher than 51% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles
Each bar is a $20,000-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year
The quick read
Reading Hilo, HI beyond the headline numbers
Hilo sits inside Hawaii County, Hawaii, at roughly 19.73°N, -155.09°W. Population 43,263, $81,779 median household income. Median home value $483,000, median rent $1,427. Poverty rate 14.5%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
1 hospital in/around Hilo, 3/5 avg rating, 1 with an ER. Climate: 74°F annual average, 120.4" precipitation.
Among the CDC measures on this page, stroke departs furthest from its peer median: 4.2% in Hilo, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.
The median home in Hilo costs around 5.9 times what a median household earns in a year -- the most expensive quarter of reporting cities, and far enough ahead of local pay that ownership is largely closed to median earners.
6.8% unemployment puts Hilo in the toughest quarter of reporting cities for job availability.
At 42.7 years, Hilo's median age is in the oldest quarter of reporting cities.
Poverty in Hilo, HI stands at 14.5%, above the midpoint of reporting cities. A median income can look comfortable while a share this size sits well beneath it, which is why the two figures belong together.
Remote work covers 8.9% of Hilo workers, under the midpoint for reporting cities.
34.6% of Hilo adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, above the midpoint of reporting cities.
Median rent in Hilo, HI runs $1,427/month, below the midpoint for reporting cities.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Hilo from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.
A Decade of Change 2013–2024
County-level trend (Hawaii County): Hilo's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.
The Economic Picture
Hilo's poverty rate of 14.5% runs 17% above the tracked-city average, the most notable of the economic figures Areazine tracks here. Median household income runs 9% below average too, at $81,779.
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Median Rent | |
| Poverty Rate | 14.5% +17% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 6.8% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 34.6% |
| Work From Home | 8.9% |
| Public Transit | 0.9% |
Headcount
Health at a Glance 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
Nearby Healthcare 1 total
CMS Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating (1-5): a composite score across dozens of reported measures, not a single outcome guarantee for any patient. It isn't adjusted for patient case mix and isn't directly comparable across hospital types, a critical-access facility and a large teaching hospital aren't rated on the same measure set.
Climate
NOAA 1991-2020 NormalsFlood Claims on Record
FEMA NFIP, county-levelSince 2016, NFIP has paid out $4.8M across 85 flood insurance claims filed in Hawaii County.
18 claims trace back to 2026-03-KonaStorm, the biggest named event in the county's flood-claim history.
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims, via OpenFEMA. County-level data: individual claims are not attributed to a specific city or address by FEMA.
What alerts and safety updates affect Hilo?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Hilo right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet HI-HILO · Hilo
Hilo: no area-tagged alerts on record. State hubs carry the live CAP stream.
- FEED-QUIET No tagged alerts
- LEAD-NONE Feed idle
- DESK-IDLE Awaiting feed
Counts reflect published articles tagged to Hilo; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Hawaii state hubs · Methodology
Related reading
Questions & Answers 8
What is the population of Hilo, HI? ▼
What is the median household income in Hilo? ▼
What is the median home value in Hilo? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Hilo? ▼
How many hospitals are in Hilo? ▼
What is the median age in Hilo? ▼
What is the climate like in Hilo? ▼
How many flood insurance claims has Hawaii County filed? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Hilo, both outside Hawaii so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside HI (14.5% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside HI ($81,779 here).
Compare Hilo with another city
Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.
Cities Close By 8
What to do with Hilo's numbers
Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.
- Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Hilo area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
- Income and poverty rate tell different stories, two places sharing a median can still diverge sharply on poverty.
- Compare Hilo against Hawaii peers on any ranking lens. Explore Hawaii
U.S. Census ACS supplies the place-level population and economics figures (income, home value, poverty, education); CDC PLACES supplies health; hospital counts reflect nearby facilities. County-level trends carry their own label.
Data Sources
All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Hawaii County) where that is the smallest published unit.
Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-09-16.