PACS401: Pacific Islands Studies Capstone: Pacific Studies Resources

When doing research within or about communities in Hawai'i, you may want to begin by answering the most basic question: How many people live here? The U.S. government conducts a detailed census every ten years (known as the Decennial Census) as well as other surveys at different points between the Decennial Census. The level of information varies from community to community, depending largely on how the census defines populations and reports data, but you should at bare minimum be able to get a rough figure of how many people from your community are living in the Islands (these figures are not exact, in part because not everyone answers the census). 

• Hawaii Census 2010 -- this web-page is put together by the Hawai'i State Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), using data from the larger U.S. Census. The link titled "Population Characteristics by Detailed Race (Summary File 2)" gives counts for every major Pacific Islands population in the Islands. If you don't see the community your looking for listed on the main Population Characteristics page, click on the "Race Rankings" file, which lists all communities that have more than 100 people. (When there are less than 100 people living either in Hawaii as a whole, or in a particular place, they are not reported -- this is to protect people's privacy ... this is because if there are less than 100 people, it might be possible to figure out who the census is talking about, and the public data is supposed to be anonymous.)
• Native Hawaiian Data Book -- this web-site, which is put together by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, gathers data from a variety of government agencies that is specific to Native Hawaiians. Note that some data also includes other Pacific Island communities (usually when the data in one way or another can be used to compare those communities with Native Hawaiian Communities).
• PRISM -- this site is put together by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, which is head-quartered in New Caledonia. This site does not have Hawai'i-specific data on it, but is a good place to look for information on Pacific Island communities within the Pacific itself -- for instance, you can find information here about how many Fijians live in Fiji; how many Cook Islanders move away from the Cook Islands each year, and so forth. This type of data can be found under the link titled "Regional Data & Tools." The country links are also very useful for exploring a wide array of official information (produced by governments) about specific countries of the Pacific.

All titles may be found, or requested, on the fifth floor of Hamilton library in the Hawaiian - Pacific collections reading room.