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+--- Thread: "Super-Aged" population a challenge for Hawaii (/showthread.php?tid=23609)
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RE: "Super-Aged" population a challenge for Hawaii - Punatang - 04-05-2025
New report debunks all of our early assertions and pretty much the whole thread. Data driven approach, in a nutshell says 18-24 year olds are moving out but Hawaii born, working age people are returning to replace them at an even greater rate. True? IDK but it represents a significant departure from the prevailing narrative.
https://www.civilbeat.org/2025/04/report-hawaiis-population-is-rebounding-thanks-to-locals-returning-home/
Skeptic Questions Report’s Findings
But not everyone is convinced, including Karl Eschbach, a retired university demographer who served as the Texas State Demographer.
Now living in Hilo, Eschbach digs into population data in his free time. He recently found data showing the Big Island is suffering what’s known as a “natural decrease” in population, in which more people are dying than being born.
Eschbach blamed the natural decrease in part on older people and retirees moving to the island, while younger adults are moving away and not coming back — ideas that Park’s report rebuts. Eschbach says Park lacks sufficient data to support some of his findings.
Park’s report includes a three-paragraph disclaimer acknowledging the report is based on data subject to large margins of error, especially in Hawaiʻi. But Eschbach said that’s not enough given some of the post’s attention-grabbing findings.
“It says it’s a non-refereed blog post, and I’d have to agree with that,” Eschbach said. “It says some provocative things that might go past the data.”
“Hawaiʻi’s Changing Economy” is supported by a grant from the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation as part of its work to build equity for all through the CHANGE Framework.”