List of counties in Hawaii

Counties of Hawaii
Hawaii Honolulu Kalawao Kauai Maui
Location	State of Hawaii
Number	5
Populations	88 (Kalawao) – 953,207 (Honolulu)
Areas	5.2 square miles (13 km2) (Kalawao) – 4,028 square miles (10,430 km2) (Hawaii)
Government	County government
Subdivisions	Communities

See also: List of United States counties and county-equivalents

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. (Even Honolulu is governed as the City and County of Honolulu, a county that covers the entire island of Oahu.)

Unlike the other 49 states, Hawaii does not delegate educational responsibility to local school boards; public education is carried out by the Hawaii State Department of Education. 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 was historically exclusively used 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	Island(s)	Population	Area	Map
Hawaii County	001	Hilo	1905	Island of Hawaiʻi, with which the county is coterminous; said to be named for Hawaiiloa, a legendary Polynesian navigator.	Hawaiʻi	185,079	4,028 sq mi (10,432 km2)
City and County of Honolulu	003	Honolulu	1905	"Sheltered bay" or "place of shelter" in Hawaiian language, Named after Honolulu, the capital and largest city of the state.	Oʻahu and the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (except Midway Atoll.)	953,207	597 sq mi (1,546 km2)
Kalawao County	005		1905	The village of Kalawao on Molokaʻi	The Kalaupapa Peninsula on Molokaʻi	88	5.2 sq mi (13 km2)
Kauaʻi County	007	Lihue	1905	Kauaʻi, the largest of the islands in the county; name possibly derived from Kauaʻi, the eldest son of Hawaiʻiloa.	Kauaʻi, Niʻihau, Lehua, and Kaʻula	67,091	622 sq mi (1,611 km2)
Maui County	009	Wailuku	1905	Maui, the largest of the islands in the county; named for Māui, a demigod from native mythology.	Maui, Kahoʻolawe, Lānaʻi, Molokai (except the Kalaupapa Peninsula), and Molokini	154,834	1,120 sq mi (2,901 km2)