After nearly 200 years, the resilient Pacific Islander population of Hawaii has bounced back, as a recent surge in population growth has strengthened their numbers considerably.
According to NPR, after Captain Cook’s encounter with the native Hawaiian population, he and his crew transmitted many diseases including measles, chicken pox, and tuberculosis.
The decline in Hawaiian population seemed to quicken after their first encounter with Western explorer James Cook.
“Historical accounts by missionaries and other Westerners who first arrived in the 1820s frequently predicted the complete eradication of the Hawaiian race from the planet by the early 20th century. Indeed, by 1920, the Native Hawaiian population had dwindled to just under 24,000, according to the U.S. Census,” said Sara Goo of the Pew Research Center.
That’s a tremendous drop from 1778. A new estimate by David Swanson of UC Irvine puts the the Native Hawaiian population then at 683,000.
Today 560,000 people in the US identify themselves as Native Hawaiian with nearly 300,00 living in Hawaii.
Some attribute this growth to the new option of selecting multiple ethnicities on the census form while others cite increased levels of fertility in Hawaiian women.
This growth trend is expected to continue at least through 2060. For more on that, read Sara Goo’s analysis at the Pew Research Center.
