CTAHR’s Center on the Family has released its most recent Community Profile Series, which examines the well-being of communities throughout the state.
The latest series, an expansion of work conducted in 2018, presents measures of quality of life and community well-being for 42 communities throughout the state, as well as state and county-level data. Data from a variety of national and state sources on 38 indicators are organized into five key well-being domains: family and social environment, economic well-being, education, health, and community. The profiles present the relative conditions of each community in comparison to the state, and communities are also ranked into five tiers, with 1 being the highest and 5 being the lowest, based on overall well-being.
While O‘ahu has a number of communities in the top tier of overall well-being, the county offers a mixed bag, with communities on the Leeward coast and in urban Honolulu landing at the bottom. Communities in Maui and Kaua‘i counties tend to place in the mid-range tiers, while Hawai‘i Island has a number of communities in the lower tiers.
Having an informed understanding of a community helps in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of programs and services. The individual profiles can be used as a tool to assist anyone who is interested in using data to inform efforts that improve the well-being of these communities and their residents.
The authors invite the public to provide feedback on the series by responding to a short survey. Additionally, those who would like to host a data party or workshop to discuss their community’s data and how it can be used to inform their efforts can contact Hawai‘i KIDS COUNT project coordinator Kathleen Gauci at kt728@hawaii.edu.