Comparable baseline
Hawaii at a glance
| Population | 1,432,820 | July 1, 2025; -1.3% since 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| Business applications | 1,478 | July 2026, seasonally adjusted |
| Trailing-12-month applications | 18,591 | 1,297.5 per 100,000 residents |
| High-propensity applications | 427 | 28.9% of July applications |
| Projected employer formations | 55 | Census four-quarter projection for July's cohort |
| Small businesses | 144,375 | SBA 2025 profile; underlying employer and nonemployer data are from 2022 |
| Small-business employment | 251,556 | 49.6% of private employment in 2022 |
| Employer establishments | 32,911 | 2023 County Business Patterns |
Application rankings cover the 50 states and use unrounded figures. Applications are qualifying EIN filings, not confirmed business openings. Measurement years differ because federal datasets are released on different schedules.
Hawaii’s latest business-application data show a slowdown, not a collapse to pre-pandemic levels. The Census Bureau recorded 1,478 seasonally adjusted applications in July 2026, down 7.4% from July 2025 and 9.0% from June. The state ranked last on the year-over-year July change.
The broader measure points the same way: 18,591 applications during the 12 months ending in July, 0.7% fewer than in the preceding 12 months. Yet July’s count remained 34.0% above July 2019. The precise story is recent weakness from a level that is still higher than the comparable pre-pandemic month.
Hawaii is one of three states with a declining trailing year
Only three states—Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington—posted a lower trailing-12-month application total than in the preceding year. Hawaii ranked 48th for trailing-year growth, ahead of Oregon and Washington, and 41st for the trailing-year application rate. Its July rate—103.2 applications per 100,000 residents—ranked 46th.
Small absolute numbers deserve attention here. A change of a few hundred monthly applications can produce a prominent percentage move in a state with 1.43 million residents. Showing the count beside the rate and percentage keeps the scale visible.
The longer demographic direction is also negative: Hawaii’s population declined 1.3% from the 2020 base to July 2025, ranking 49th among states. That is relevant context, but the two series do not establish that population loss caused fewer applications.
Hawaii received fewer new applications in both current windows; these data say nothing about closures, payroll contraction, or business survival. Among July’s applications, 28.9% met the high-propensity definition, ranking 12th, while modeled formations per 100 applications ranked 45th.
Honolulu holds nearly two-thirds of employer employment
Hawaii’s employer economy is geographically concentrated. Of the 520,043 private employees measured in 2023 County Business Patterns, 331,937 worked in Honolulu County—63.8% of the state total and the fourth-highest leading-county share among states. Maui County held 62,683 employees and Hawaii County 54,716. The top three together accounted for 86.4%.
This concentration means a statewide employment statistic is heavily influenced by Oahu. A state average will not describe Maui, Hawaii, or Kauai counties equally well.
County figures count jobs at workplaces, not employed residents. Commuting patterns and businesses serving customers across islands are not captured by a simple county share, but the 63.8% Honolulu result is still large enough to make the geographic concentration unmistakable.
Accommodation and food services account for 18.8% of covered jobs
Accommodation and food services employed 97,559 people in the 2023 CBP data. It was Hawaii’s largest employer sector, representing 18.8% of state private employment—1.80 times the 50-state share.
The sector is a concrete part of Hawaii’s employer economy, not evidence about the cause of recent application changes. CBP does not capture businesses without paid employees and excludes most crop and animal production, so it is not a complete account of Hawaii’s visible agricultural activity.
The SBA profile reports 144,375 small businesses using underlying 2022 data: 24,728 small employer firms and 119,647 nonemployer establishments. Small firms employed 251,556 people, or 49.6% of private employment, slightly above the 50-state median.
Hawaii’s official business starting points
- The DCCA Business Registration Division handles entity and trade-name filings through Hawaii Business Express.
- The Department of Taxation explains registration and filing for the General Excise Tax, which applies to business gross income or receipts rather than operating like a conventional retail sales tax.
- DCCA’s Professional and Vocational Licensing pages cover regulated occupations and businesses.
- The Hawaii SBDC offers statewide no-cost business advising.
- DCCA’s annual-report FAQ explains that an entity’s due quarter follows its original registration quarter rather than one date for every business.
Source and calculation note
July counts and comparisons use the seasonally adjusted July 2026 BFS release. The trailing-year total sums unadjusted applications from August 2025 through July 2026 and compares them with the preceding 12 months. Rates use Hawaii’s July 1, 2025 population estimate; ranks compare 50 states using unrounded values. Small-business measures use 2022 components in the SBA profile, and county/industry employment uses 2023 CBP. Sources were retrieved or checked September 3, 2026.