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Hawaii Counties

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Hawaii Counties

The five Counties of Hawaiʻi on the Hawaiian Islands enjoy somewhat greater status than many Counties on the United States mainland. Counties in Hawaiʻi are the only legally constituted government bodies below that of the state. The county of Kalawao is used exclusively as a leper colony, and does not have many of the elected officials the other Counties do

Hawaii County, Hawaii

Hawaii County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Hilo
Year Organized: 1905
Square Miles: 4,028

Court House:

25 Aupuni Street
Hawaii County Building
Hilo, HI 96720-0000

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Hawaii is said to be named for Hawaiiloa, hero of the foundation myth of the native Hawaiian people.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Hawaiʻi County is a county located in the U.S. state of Hawaiʻi in the Hawaiian Islands. It is coterminous with the Island of Hawaiʻi (sometimes called the Big Island).

Geography

Hawaiʻi County has a total area of 5,087 square miles (13,174 km²); 4,028 square miles (10,433 km²) of it is land and 1,059 square miles (2,742 km²) is water (mostly all off the ocean shoreline but counted in the total area by the U.S. Census Bureau, making these numbers unreliable for most purposes). The county's land area comprises 62.7 percent of the state's land area. It is the highest percentage by any county in the United States.

Neighboring Counties:

Surrounding area: North Pacific Ocean
Maui County, Hawaiʻi - northwest

Cities and Towns:

- Hilo (County Seat)

CDP

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."