Updated April 2026 · U.S. Census Bureau data
Hawaii City Spending Rankings
Hawaii has 1 cities with 50,000 or more residents covered by CitySpend, totaling 349K in covered population. The average Fiscal Health Score across these cities is 45/100, sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances. Hawaii's covered cities post an average Fiscal Health Score of 45/100 (grade C), squarely in the middle of the national distribution. Some Hawaii cities are running clean books and adequately funded pensions; others are showing strain on debt service or pension contributions. The split is visible in the rankings below.
Hawaii Fiscal Profile
Across all covered Hawaii cities, the largest aggregate spending categories are parks at $1.4B and fire protection at $465.3M. That mix reflects Hawaii's overall service-delivery model, in some states police and fire dominate; in others, education or roads take the largest aggregate share when cities operate their own school districts.
Healthiest and Most Stressed Cities
Top Fiscal Performers
Most Fiscally Stressed
All 1 Cities in Hawaii
How These Rankings Are Calculated
City Fiscal Health Scores combine budget balance and reserves (25%), debt burden per capita (20%), pension funded ratio (20%), spending efficiency (15%), revenue diversity (10%), and three-year trend direction (10%). All inputs come from the U.S. Census Bureau Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances. For the largest cities, we cross-reference the Lincoln Institute's Fiscally Standardized Cities database to adjust for school-district and county overlap. Pension data comes from the Public Plans Database. Best-practice weighting follows guidance from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA). Read the full methodology.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many cities in Hawaii are covered by CitySpend?
CitySpend covers 1 cities in Hawaii with 50,000 or more residents, totaling 349K in population. Smaller municipalities, towns, and unincorporated areas are excluded from the dataset.
What is Hawaii's average Fiscal Health Score?
Hawaii's 1 covered cities post an average Fiscal Health Score of 45/100. The score combines budget balance and reserves, debt burden per capita, pension funding, spending efficiency, revenue diversity, and three-year trend direction. Each city is benchmarked against population peers, so a 200,000-resident city is compared to other mid-size cities, not against the largest cities in the country.
Where does Hawaii city spending data come from?
Every figure on this page is drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances, with population estimates from the American Community Survey. For the largest cities, we cross-reference the Lincoln Institute's Fiscally Standardized Cities database to adjust for school-district overlap. Federal grant flows come from USASpending.gov; pension data, where available, comes from the Public Plans Database.
Which Hawaii cities have the strongest fiscal health?
Urban Honolulu (D) rank among the top fiscal performers in Hawaii. Strong scores typically pair balanced budgets with low debt-per-capita and well-funded pensions. See the rankings below for the full list.
Which Hawaii cities are most fiscally stressed?
Urban Honolulu (D) rank toward the bottom of the Hawaii fiscal health distribution. Common stress signals include pension underfunding, elevated debt service, and revenue concentration in a single tax source. A low score is a screening signal, not a verdict, always read the city's audited Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (ACFR) before drawing conclusions.
Hawaii has 1 cities with 50,000 or more residents covered by CitySpend, totaling 349K in covered population. The average Fiscal Health Score across these cities is 45/100, sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances. Hawaii's covered cities post an average Fiscal Health Score of 45/100 (grade C), squarely in the middle of the national distribution. Some Hawaii cities are running clean books and adequately funded pensions; others are showing strain on debt service or pension contributions. The split is visible in the rankings below.
For this entity, the underlying data on this page comes from the Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances. The breakdown above is the federal record; the paragraphs below add the per-entity context that makes the headline numbers usable for a real decision rather than just a data lookup.
Every number on this page links back to the Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances; the methodology page describes the inputs, refresh cadence, and known limitations of the underlying data product.
For readers using this page as a decision input, the related-entity pages elsewhere on the site provide the comparison set. The most useful comparison for this entity is typically a peer within U.S. cities, counties, and states with similar size, similar exposure, or similar geography — not the national-level summary alone.