It's Only A Number

"One million people" is a significant threshold for a city. In the U.S. one million is enough to get on the leaderboard; San Jose is #10 at 1,036,000.

The 2020 census confirmed that Honolulu has reached the big time:

the results of last year’s census — the first to allow households to respond to the decennial survey online — set Honolulu’s population at 1,016,508, up 6.6% from an influx of 63,301 residents since 2010, according to data released Thursday.

The state as a whole experienced a 7% population increase from the last census, with 1,455,271 people counted, including 94,970 new residents over the 10-year period.

When Hawaii became a state in 1959, the total population was 633,000. It finally crossed the one-million mark in the 1990 census.

30 years later the City of Honolulu has hit the magic number. After the residents have come to understand all the costs that entail being a big city, that achievement is not necessarily held in such high esteem.