UHERO Executive Projects 30K Drop in Hawai‘i Population by 2022

Hawaiʻi’s population is expected to drop by about 30,000 people by 2022, according to projections by Carl Bonham, Executive Director of University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization. He shared the information during the latest meeting of the House Select Committee on COVID-19.

The projection is based on the amount of workers with no family ties to Hawaiʻi who will exhaust their unemployment benefits before moving to seek work on the mainland.

Although he expressed concerns about what will happen when federal unemployment and loan support ends in July, he expects the local economy to continue to improve and the tourism economy to slowly reopen, recovering about half its jobs by the end of the year.

The committee meets again on Monday, June 15.