PNPI Explorer Blog – Hawaii
Welcome back to the PNPI Explorer blog series, where we examine higher education data in different states. This week’s spotlight is on Hawaii.
In 2021 in Hawaii, there were 17 institutions serving 42,138 full-time equivalent (FTE) students. The enrolled student body in Hawaii is one of the most racially diverse in the country. By looking at the Enrollment & Access report, we can see that no racial/ethnic category makes up substantially more than a quarter of all FTE enrollment, with Asian or Asian American students being the largest share at 27.1%. This share of Asian or Asian American FTE students is 19.5 percentage points higher than the national estimate, while White FTE enrollment (which is the largest group nationally at 49.1%) makes up only 18% of the FTE enrollment in Hawaii.
This level of racial diversity in the student body makes Hawaii the state with the largest shares of Asian or Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students in the country. Using the Comparison Tool, we can examine just how big the discrepancy is between the share of Asian or Asian American students at Hawaii institutions compared to other states. While Hawaii is 19.5 percentage points higher than the national estimate, it is also 10.7 percentage points higher than the second highest state (California).
Students from these racial/ethnic groups make up considerably smaller shares in the national landscape, with just 7.6% and 0.2% of FTE students identifying as Asian/Asian American or Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, respectively.
Find something interesting about Hawaii that you would like to share with us? Drop us a note via our feedback page or discuss your findings on LinkedIn! Check back next week when we explore data insights about Idaho.
