Kalaupapa statistics
cast doubt on census data

The population figure is way off,
and the youngest "child" is 60

Star-Bulletin staff

Census takers appear to have over-counted the smallest county in Hawaii by nearly 50 percent.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, some 147 residents live in Molokai's Kalawao County, a settlement for Hansen's disease patients on the Kalaupapa peninsula.

Michael McCarten, the settlement's state administrator, said the number of people living in Kalaupapa is 100.

McCarten said he had already filled out census forms for Maui County but was asked by a census taker in later summer or early fall of last year to fill out a form for Kalawao County anyway.

McCarten said the experience has left him wondering how real are the numbers in the census for other areas.

The Census Bureau also said Kalawao County has the lowest population percentage of children in the United States, 2.04 percent.

McCarten, who keeps a daily log of the people at Kalaupapa, said the settlement has no children.

"Our youngest child is 60," McCarten said.

McCarten said state law prohibits anyone under 16 years of age to even visit Kalawao.

The peninsula was once an isolated section of land where Hawaii government officials sent people with leprosy before medicine was developed to treat the disease.

McCarten said the last patient was admitted in 1969.

Of the 100 people living there, some 43 remain patients.

The youngest is a 60-year-old man, and two 97-year-old men are the oldest, McCarten said.

The state Department of Health is allowing the patients to remain at Kalawao for the remainder of their natural lives, after which the National Park Service would assume full control of the peninsula.

Park Service employees have been restoring old buildings.

Kalaupapa was the residence of Father Damien, who administered to the patients from 1873 through 1883, when he died from Hansen's disease.

Visitors are able to arrive at Kalaupapa in a light airplane or on a mule ride down a cliff-side switchback trail.

A barge arrives once a year with large supplies and equipment, including vehicles and canned goods.

Kalawao has one bar.

Residents watch the TV soap operas at Elaine's when it opens at 2 p.m. It closes at 7 p.m.