Should I Stay or Should I Go? Hawai‘i’s Young People Are Asking.
With soaring costs, limited opportunities, and a rapidly aging population, more young people in Hawai‘i are weighing an uncomfortable question. For many, the answer is increasingly clear.
Photo Courtesy: Perry Arrasmith
Both of my siblings live on the continent.
Like me, they graduated from public high schools in Hawaiʻi. Both of them later attained degrees from schools of higher learning (Leeward Community College and University of Hawaii, West Oʻahu). They both worked for a few years in Hawaiʻi. Both were gone from the state before the age of 30. At some point, it just made more sense to leave.
During the holiday season, they visit for a couple weeks. They marvel at the high cost of goods and the fact that their childhood friends still live at home. One speaks about his ability to buy a new house, a boat and a massive truck. Gas is cheaper. He can travel across state lines to attend concerts or assess new fishing lakes.
If he had stayed in Hawaiʻi, he wouldn’t be able to do those things. They’re not alone. A lot of young people leave. For economic reasons, it makes sense to leave.
Young people reckon with the impact of reality on their plans for the future and they make difficult decisions.
With that said, it’s way too easy to complain about Hawaiʻi’s problems. I don’t think it fair to make a list of all the reasons we know Hawaiʻi is not friendly to young people. We know economic opportunities are limited. We know the cost of living is high. We know that our housing options are sparse.
We know Hawaiʻi is not an inviting place for young people, at least not anymore. We were once one of the youngest states in the country. Today, we are the fastest-aging state.
It begs a question that we should ask more openly: Why should a young person stay in Hawaiʻi?
Seriously, ask a young person why they’re still in Hawaiʻi. Ask them whether they’ve ever considered leaving.
In 2025, Holomua Collective conducted a survey of 3,241 residents. 17% of the people surveyed were between the ages of 18 and 34. For a Hawaiʻi survey, Holomua Collective’s efforts are a unique window into statewide sentiment.
As a part of their survey, Holomua asked respondents to weigh their odds of eventually moving away from Hawaiʻi. Of the young adults surveyed, more than one-third (36%) predict they’ll eventually leave Hawaiʻi. More than half of this group admits that they will need to leave in the next five years – or less.
The only difference is that these young people have more options than a lot of other people. Many have not started their own families yet. They have not gotten too deep into their careers. They can leave when they want to.
Perry and Nathan at their childhood home in ‘Aiea in 2012. Photo Courtesy: Perry Arrasmith
Many will start their careers in Hawaiʻi or fall in love, only to conclude that limited economic opportunities, combined with a comparatively high cost of living, cannot justify staying in the islands.
A lot of young people stay in Hawaiʻi in spite of these challenges. They bundle up in bunches in childhood homes and share Costco memberships for food. They’re not that special. They’re navigating the same Hawaiʻi as everyone else.
Many stay for the sake of their families. Others truly enjoy our nature and pay a “paradise tax.”
When I was an undergraduate at Harvard College, members of the local Hawaiʻi club regularly asked one another about whether they planned to return to Hawaiʻi. In my friend group, no one planned to move back until retirement (I’m not kidding). Today, I’m the only member of my Harvard class of Hawaiʻi students (there were over a dozen of us) who is back in Hawaiʻi.
People from Hawaiʻi, especially young people, are fiercely proud of where they come from. This only magnifies after a few years on the continent. That’s why a lot of colleges on the continent have special social clubs for students from Texas, California, New York and our comparatively small archipelago of islands.
Nathan working as a roofer in Oregon in 2016. Photo Courtesy: Perry Arrasmith
It may be an indication of my own hubris, but I think the best and the brightest of those people raised in Hawaiʻi aren’t the people who leave the islands. Even if they miss Trader Joe’s, the best and the brightest are the people who choose to stay in spite of Hawaiʻi’s challenges.
Many young people are looking for incentives. They are looking for more leadership opportunities. More economic incentives. More excitement. They are looking for the dynamism of a Hawaiʻi that gives them room for true growth.
What will it take to entice young people to see Hawaiʻi as a place suited for growth, with fresh opportunities to engage in the social, cultural, economic and political fabric of Hawaiʻi? What will it take to make Hawaiʻi an attractive place to its young people?
Young people don’t know. That’s why we wonder whether we should stay or go.
