ZIP code 96740

ZIP 96740 is a small city in Hawaii County, Hawaii, with 40,805 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #15 of 97 ranked by population — larger than 85% of them. The median age here is 43.2 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly older profile than the country as a whole. Places under 65,000 residents only appear in the five-year release, never the one-year file, so these values pool sixty months of responses and lag the current year by design.

Households in ZIP 96740 earn a median of $94,091 a year, 19.8% above the national figure of $78,538. Median household income counts every pre-tax dollar arriving at an address — wages, self-employment, Social Security, pensions, interest and public assistance — for everyone living there, so multi-earner households pull the figure up even where individual pay is modest. Poverty reaches 12.5% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 96740 is valued at $730,600, 140.8% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,692 a month, 20.3% above the national figure, or roughly $20,304 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 21.6% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 7.8×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is out of reach on local earnings alone and the ownership market leans on outside income, equity or dual high earners. 70.9% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

Home values sit at 7.8× median household income, far past the 3.9× national mark, so ownership costs here are set by something other than local wages — second homes, retirees with equity, or commuters earning elsewhere. Median income runs above the national figure while poverty also runs above it — a split distribution, not a uniformly comfortable place. Averages hide that; the two numbers together do not.

No figure on this page is estimated by us; each one comes straight from the published ACS tables for this area. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.

ZIP 96740 is tabulated inside Hawaii County, Hawaii, one of 28 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 97 across Hawaii. This is a dense urban ZIP, where a single postal boundary can hold more residents than an entire rural county. County assignment on this page follows the largest share of the ZIP's land area, which matters where a delivery route crosses a county line: mail addressed to 96740 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 96740 reports a median household income of $94,091, 23% above the $76,585 county median, and 3% above the $91,429 typical HI ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $730,600, 35% above the county figure and close to the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,692 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

Hawaii charges 4% statewide, and local governments overlapping 96740 may add county, city or special-district levies on top. We publish the state floor for this ZIP rather than guessing a combined figure, because ZIP boundaries and taxing-district boundaries were drawn for different purposes and do not line up.

Everything above comes from the Census Bureau American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates for this ZIP Code Tabulation Area, with sales tax rates traced to the state revenue agency. Five-year estimates pool sixty months of responses, so they are stable enough to compare 96740 with its neighbours but always trail the current year, and any value the Census suppressed for sample size is shown as unpublished rather than filled in with a model.