List of counties in Hawaii

Hawaii

Honolulu

Kalawao

Kauai

Maui

The five counties of Hawaii on the Hawaiian Islands enjoy somewhat greater status than many counties on the United States mainland. Counties in Hawaii are the only legally constituted government bodies below that of the state. No formal level of government (such as city governments) exists below that of the county in Hawaii. Rhode Island also has five counties, making Delaware the state with the least counties, at three. Public education is carried out by the Hawaii State Department of Education (Hawaii does not delegate educational responsibility to local school boards like the other 49 states),, so Hawaiian counties collect property taxes and user fees in order to support road maintenance, community activities, parks (including life guards at beach parks), garbage collection, police (the state police force, called the Hawaii Department of Public Safety, is limited in scope), ambulance, and fire suppression services. All the counties were created in 1905 from unorganized territory, seven years after the Territory of Hawaii was created. The county of Kalawao is used exclusively as a leper colony, and does not have many of the elected officials the other counties do.

County information

The Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) code, which is used by the United States government to uniquely identify counties, is provided with each entry. The FIPS code for each county links to census data for that county.

County	FIPS code	County seat	Established	Etymology	Population	Area	Map
Hawaii County	001	Hilo	May 10, 1905	Island of Hawai'i, with which the county is coterminous; said to be named for Hawaiʻiloa, a legendary Polynesian navigator. Island: Hawaii.	&10000000000185079000000185,079	&100000000000040280000004,028 sq mi (&1000000000001043200000010,432 km2)
Maui County	009	Wailuku	July 1, 1905	Maui Island, the largest of the islands in the county; named for Māui, a demigod from native mythology. Islands: Maui, Kahoolawe, Lānai, Molokai (except for a portion of Molokai that comprises Kalawao County), and Molokini.	&10000000000154834000000154,834	&100000000000011200000001,120 sq mi (&100000000000029010000002,901 km2)
Kalawao County	005	Kalaupapa	November 10, 1905	The village of Kalawao on the island of Molokaʻi, which lies within its boundaries.	&1000000000000009000000090	&1000000000000005200000052 sq mi (&10000000000000135000000135 km2)
Honolulu County	003	Honolulu	April 30, 1907	"Sheltered bay" or "place of shelter" in Hawaiian language, Named after Honolulu, the capital and largest city in Hawaii. Island: Oahu.	&10000000000953207000000953,207	&10000000000000597000000597 sq mi (&100000000000015460000001,546 km2)
Kauai County	007	Līhu'e	July 1, 1905	Kauai Island, the largest of the islands in the county; named possibly derived from Kaua'i, the eldest son of Hawaiʻiloa. Islands: Kauaʻi, Niʻihau, Lehua, and Kaʻula.	&1000000000006709100000067,091	&10000000000000622000000622 sq mi (&100000000000016110000001,611 km2)