The state’s yearslong population decline turned a corner in 2023, boosted by a net gain in Hawaiʻi-born residents returning home, a University of Hawaiʻi economist reported on Wednesday.
The report based on census data shows more people moved to Hawaiʻi from the U.S. mainland than moved away from the islands in 2023. It’s a marked reversal of a trend that began in 2018.
But what’s more notable are the people who the report says drove the change: among them, Hawaiʻi-born adults in their prime working and child-bearing years…