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Military personnel will
By Gregg K. Kakesako
number about 42,800 in
Hawaii’s 2000 census
Star-BulletinWhen the last census was taken a decade ago, Hawaii's uniformed military services totaled just over 54,000, about 4.9 percent of the state's resident population.
With the overall force reduction worldwide, the nation's military strength has shrunk and an informal survey of Hawaii's major commands reveals a count of a little more than 42,800 soldiers, sailors, airmen/women and Marines.
Since 1950 and through the Korean and Vietnam wars, Hawaii's military population grew steadily from 22,856.
The peak was in 1980, during President Reagan's expansion years, when 58,443 active duty service members were stationed here.
The Army estimated that only 65 percent of the soldiers stationed in Hawaii responded during the 1990 census and the undercount may have cost the state $6 million.
On the East Coast, the last census missed about 36,000 sailors stationed at the naval base at Norfolk, Va., and city planners estimate the undercount resulted in a loss of $7 million in federal dollars.
The 36,000 sailors stationed in Virginia were counted in their home states.
Census figures are used for such tasks as reapportioning congressional districts and allocating federal aid to states and counties.
During this year's census, Hawaii's military, including sailors assigned to 11 warships and 21 submarines in the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, will be counted as part of Hawaii's resident population, as was the practice here 10 years ago, said Mike Hovland, who works in the Census Bureau's history department.
For the soldiers stationed in Hawaii, there will be one enumerator for every unit, or for every 50 soldiers, a Fort Shafter spokesman said.
The soldiers will be asked to fill out census questionnaires at their units and another questionnaire will be sent to their homes.
"The Census Bureau will eliminate the duplication at a later date," said Army spokesman John Fairbank.
Earlier this week, 98 million census forms were mailed to city and suburban addresses.
About 83 million homes will get the short form, which contain seven questions, and a random list of 15 million homes will get the long forms, which have 52 questions.
Of the 54,000 active duty military personnel counted a decade ago, 53,549 lived on Oahu. Military dependents numbered 63,215.
The last census found that the armed forces here were predominantly male and their dependents, largely female (65 percent). Unemployment rates were far higher for military dependents -- 7.8 percent compared to 3.4 percent for the civilian population.
Families headed by a member of the armed forces had a median income that was 33 percent less than that of civilian families.
The median age of men in the military was 27, compared to 32 in the civilian sector. For women, it was 27, compared to 34 for civilians.
