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HI · 5 counties · capital Honolulu · Hawaii-Aleutian Time
Hawaii county map
Hawaii has only five counties, one for each main island group, and one of them, Kalawao, is the smallest county in the United States. Honolulu is a consolidated city and county covering all of Oahu.
How Hawaii’s counties are laid out
Hawaii’s county map is the simplest of any state: the islands themselves are the county lines. Four counties were created in 1905, six years after annexation, by the Territory of Hawaii’s County Act. Hawaii County is the Big Island; Maui County is Maui, Molokai, Lanai and uninhabited Kahoolawe; Kauai County is Kauai and Niihau; and the City and County of Honolulu is Oahu together with the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, a chain of atolls stretching more than 1,000 miles to the north-west (Midway, at the far end, is federal territory and not part of the state).
The fifth county, Kalawao, is the Kalaupapa peninsula on the north shore of Molokai, cut off from the rest of the island by 1,600-foot sea cliffs. It was the site of the Hansen’s disease (leprosy) settlement where Father Damien worked from 1873, and it is still administered by the Hawaii Department of Health rather than by an elected county government. It has no county seat, fewer than 100 residents and covers only about 13 square miles.
Because there are no municipalities below county level, the counties do the work that cities do elsewhere: police, fire, water, roads and zoning are all county functions. Places such as Hilo, Kailua-Kona, Kahului and Lihue are census-designated places, not incorporated cities. Honolulu is the only city in the state in a legal sense, and it and the county are one government, with a mayor and a nine-member council.
All 5 counties of Hawaii
| County | County seat |
|---|---|
| Hawaii | Hilo |
| Honolulu | Honolulu |
| Kalawao | none (administered by the state Department of Health) |
| Kauai | Lihue |
| Maui | Wailuku |
Five county facts
- Largest by area: Hawaii County, the Big Island, about 4,000 square miles of land — larger than all the other islands combined. It holds Mauna Kea (13,803 ft, the state high point) and Mauna Loa, and its seat Hilo is on the wet windward side.
- Smallest by area: Kalawao County, about 13 square miles of land, the smallest county in the United States. It is also the least populous county in the country, with fewer than 100 people at the 2020 Census.
- Most populous: the City and County of Honolulu, with about 1,016,000 people in 2020 — roughly seven in ten Hawaii residents live on Oahu. See the Honolulu city map.
- Least populous (with a government): Kauai County, with about 73,000 people. Its seat, Lihue, is next to the island’s airport. Niihau, the privately owned island to the west, is also part of Kauai County.
- Oldest and newest: Hawaii, Maui, Kauai and Oahu (renamed Honolulu in 1907) counties were all created together in 1905. Kalawao is the youngest as a county name but the settlement dates from 1866. Honolulu is the state’s only consolidated city-county; there are no independent cities.
Reading the map
The map opens with Alaska and Hawaii shown, so the whole island chain is visible; click on Hawaii to zoom to the eight main islands. Press Streets to see the channel between Maui and the Big Island (Alenuihaha) that forms the Hawaii–Maui county line, and the short Kalawao boundary along the cliff base on Molokai. Maui County is the only one to span several inhabited islands, and its seat Wailuku is on Maui itself, near Kahului airport. The state lies in the Hawaii-Aleutian Time Zone and does not observe daylight saving time.
Related maps
- Hawaii map — islands, cities and geography.
- Blank Hawaii map and printable Hawaii map.
- Honolulu, the state capital and county seat of the City and County of Honolulu.
- Other Pacific county maps: California, Alaska.
- Pacific division · the West · Hawaii-Aleutian Time Zone.
- Geography: state high points (Mauna Kea), national parks (Hawaii Volcanoes, Haleakala), US coastlines.
- All US county maps.