No. All data comes from nonpartisan federal agencies that report the same way for all 50 states. Drivers and levers are evidence-based, with authoritative sources cited. The dashboard describes outcomes and lets readers draw their own conclusions.
Comparing against all 49 other states provides the broadest and most consistent benchmark. For deeper analysis, each metric's "Lessons from other states" section identifies states that share a specific condition with Hawaiʻi, and the Rank History tab lets you benchmark against any individual state.
No other state shares our mix of island geography, small population, import dependence, and an economy shaped by tourism and military spending. The Rank History tab lets you compare Hawaiʻi with any of the 49 other states. One approach: find a peer on a shared condition rather than overall similarity. A metric's Potential drivers section points to the conditions shaping Hawaiʻi's outcome; use those as cues. For example, compare property crime rates with Nevada, where tourism dominates as in Hawaiʻi.
Most federal sources that report consistently for all 50 states publish statewide totals only, without reliable Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander breakdowns at the state level. This is a data limitation we would like to address as better sources become available.
Every metric must pass eight criteria listed on the About page, including consistent federal data for all 50 states over a long time horizon and a clear "better or worse" direction. Many important issues fail one or more of these tests.
Sometimes. A leading indicator tends to move early and can hint at what's coming; a lagging indicator moves later, after underlying conditions have been at work for years. The 26 metrics here are all outcomes and mix both.
Two examples worth watching:
The dashboard covers both thresholds, unsheltered only and total (sheltered + unsheltered), but defaults to unsheltered. It reflects the most severe housing failure and is counted the same way in every state through HUD's annual Point-in-Time survey. Total homelessness definitions vary by jurisdiction, making consistent comparison harder.
Focus on the trend over several years rather than a single year's movement. Small wiggles in survey-based metrics often reflect sampling variation rather than real change.
The value shows what residents actually experience. The rank shows where Hawaiʻi stands nationally. A state can improve in value while slipping in rank if other states improve faster.
For each metric, we group the 50 states into three tiers by rank: Top tier (ranks 1–16), Middle tier (ranks 17–33), Bottom tier (ranks 34–50). The label is direction-aware, so "Top tier" always reads as good for the state, whether higher or lower values are better on that metric. The same vocabulary is used on the card-tile verdict, the modal Rank chart, the Rank History chart, the modal "Copy brief" sentence, and the OG share image, so the framing reads the same way wherever you see it.
2020 and 2021 are excluded from both windows when present in the data. The COVID collapse and snapback distort normal-times comparisons (unemployment spiked to 11.6% in 2020, labor-force participation collapsed, business formation swung), and including those years produces nonsense like "worsened 224%" for noisy metrics. When the exclusion fires, the windows pin to the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic sides; the year-range label on the card and the "(2020–21 excluded)" note in the modal Bottom Line phrase show this is happening.
Every claim is sourced to a peer-reviewed study, federal report, or established research organization. The dashboard describes what evidence shows, and readers decide what to do with it.
Yes, always. Showing all 26 metrics regardless of whether they favor or disfavor the state is what makes the dashboard trustworthy.
Use the Share button to copy a permanent link to the specific metric and view. Cite as: "Hawaiʻi Dashboard, [Metric Name], [Year], hawaiidashboard.org."
This dashboard is a public-interest project developed by GUILD Consulting. We read submissions when we can and may not be able to respond individually.