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Demographics of Kihei, HI
Affluence Level in Kihei, HI
A middle-class area roughly in line with national averages across income, home values, education, and employment.
People of Kihei, HI
Kihei, Hawaii, is a diverse coastal town of 22,564 residents where no single ethnic group holds a majority, creating a distinctive blend of local and mainland influences. The population is 41.3% white, 20.2% East and Southeast Asian (primarily Filipino and Japanese), 13.4% Hispanic, and 1.3% Black, with a foreign-born share of 7.2% and a college-educated rate of 32.0%. This demographic mix reflects a history of plantation labor, military expansion, and tourism-driven migration that has shaped Kihei from a small fishing village into Maui's most densely populated bedroom community. The town's character today is defined by its role as a relatively affordable (by Hawaiian standards) coastal hub for service workers, retirees, and remote professionals, with a noticeably younger and more transient feel than the island's older plantation towns.
How the city was settled and grew
Kihei's original population consisted of Native Hawaiians who lived in small fishing villages along the coast, with the area known historically as a dry, leeward region unsuitable for the large sugar plantations that dominated central and east Maui. The first major demographic shift came in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when sugar and pineapple plantations on other parts of Maui brought waves of immigrant laborers—primarily from Japan, China, the Philippines, and Portugal—but Kihei itself remained sparsely populated ranchland and fishing grounds until after World War II. The Kalepolepo area, near the ancient fishponds, was the original Native Hawaiian settlement core, while the inland Kealia district was used for cattle grazing by the Ulupalakua Ranch. The first non-Hawaiian families to settle permanently in Kihei were mostly Portuguese and Japanese ranchers and fishermen who established small homesteads along what is now South Kihei Road, forming the nucleus of the Keawakapu and Kamaole beach neighborhoods. By 1950, Kihei's population was still under 500, overwhelmingly Native Hawaiian and part-Hawaiian, with small clusters of Japanese and Portuguese families who had intermarried with the local population over generations.
Modern era (post-1965)
The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act opened the door for a new wave of Asian immigration, but Kihei's modern population explosion was driven primarily by domestic migration from the U.S. mainland, not foreign immigration. The construction of the Kihei-Wailea resort corridor in the 1970s and 1980s transformed the town, attracting white retirees and service workers from California, the Pacific Northwest, and the Midwest who sought warm weather and lower housing costs relative to Honolulu. The Wailea area (technically a separate census-designated place but functionally part of the Kihei corridor) became the enclave for wealthy white retirees and second-home owners, while the North Kihei neighborhoods around Piilani Highway and the Azeka Place shopping district absorbed the bulk of the Filipino and other East/Southeast Asian service workers who staffed the hotels and restaurants. Hispanic migration, primarily from Mexico and Central America, began accelerating in the 1990s as construction and landscaping jobs multiplied, with many settling in the Keonekai and Liloa areas where older, more affordable apartment complexes are concentrated. The white share of Kihei's population peaked around 2000 at roughly 50% and has since declined to 41.3%, while the Hispanic share has grown from under 5% in 1990 to 13.4% today, and the East/Southeast Asian share has remained stable at about 20% due to continued Filipino immigration and natural increase. The Black population remains very small at 1.3%, and the Indian-subcontinent population is effectively zero, reflecting Hawaii's historically limited draw for South Asian immigrants compared to the mainland.
The future
Kihei's population is likely to continue diversifying slowly, with the white share projected to decline further as housing costs push out lower-income retirees and remote workers while Hispanic and Filipino families grow through higher birth rates and continued immigration. The town is not tribalizing into distinct ethnic enclaves—most neighborhoods remain mixed, though Wailea is becoming more exclusively white and affluent, while North Kihei near the industrial area is seeing a growing concentration of Hispanic and Filipino households. The foreign-born share of 7.2% is low by national standards but significant for Hawaii, and it is likely to rise modestly as Filipino chain migration continues and a small number of Hispanic immigrants arrive for service jobs. The biggest demographic wild card is the impact of climate change and rising insurance costs: if Kihei becomes unaffordable for middle-class families, the population could shift toward a bifurcated structure of wealthy white retirees in Wailea and lower-income service workers of color in the older neighborhoods, with the Native Hawaiian and part-Hawaiian population continuing to shrink as a share of the total.
For someone moving to Kihei now, the town offers a genuinely multiethnic environment where no single group dominates, but where economic stratification is increasingly visible between the resort corridor and the older inland neighborhoods. The population is stable in size but slowly becoming more Hispanic and less white, with a strong Filipino cultural presence that shapes local festivals, food, and community life. Kihei is not a place of rapid demographic upheaval, but rather a slow-motion evolution toward a more diverse, service-oriented population that reflects the broader trends reshaping Hawaii's less expensive coastal towns.
* Values derived from national, state, county, city and local statistics and may differ in a specific area. Last updated: 2026-04-24T00:41:08.000Z
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