County facts · Land area · October 22, 2026

Largest Counties in Hawaii by Area and Population

The largest Hawaii counties by land area and by 2023 population, plus the smallest, county seats and a link to each official parcel map.

Looking for the largest counties in Hawaii? Hawaii has 5 counties covering about 6,422 square miles of land, based on the Census Bureau's 2020 Gazetteer. The largest by land area is Hawaii County, at about 4,028 square miles, roughly 336 times the size of the smallest, Kalawao County (12 sq mi). Measured by people instead, the largest is Honolulu County, with about 989,408 residents in the Census Bureau's July 1, 2023 estimate.

Kalawao County, on the Kalaupapa Peninsula of Molokai, has no county government of its own, which is why the Seat column shows a dash for it. Our directory points it to the Maui County tax parcel viewer.

Each table below links the county's Platbookmapper page and its official parcel viewer, so you can go straight from the numbers to the property lines.

Hawaii counties at a glance

Counties: 5
Land area: about 6,422 sq mi, plus about 4,547 sq mi of water inside county lines
Residents, 2023 estimates: about 1,435,138, or about 223 people per square mile of land
Median county land area: about 620 sq mi
With a verified public parcel viewer in our directory: 4 of 5

All 5 Hawaii counties ranked by land area

#	County	Seat	Land (sq mi)	Water (sq mi)	2023 pop.	People per sq mi	Parcel viewer
1	Hawaii County	Hilo	4,028	1,058	207,615	52	ArcGIS Experience Builder
2	Maui County	Wailuku	1,162	1,237	164,183	141	ArcGIS Experience Builder
3	Kauai County	Līhuʻe	620	646	73,851	119	listed link under review
4	Honolulu County	Honolulu	601	1,566	989,408	1,647	qPublic (Schneider Geospatial)
5	Kalawao County	—	12	41	81	6.8	ArcGIS Experience Builder

A dash in the Seat column means Wikidata lists no current county seat for that county.

All 5 ranked by population

Honolulu County: about 989,408 residents (69% of the state)
Hawaii County: about 207,615 residents (14% of the state)
Maui County: about 164,183 residents (11% of the state)
Kauai County: about 73,851 residents (5% of the state)
Kalawao County: about 81 residents (0% of the state)

Counties with the most water

The Census Bureau reports water separately from land. It counts lakes, reservoirs, rivers and, along a coast or a Great Lake, the water inside the boundary.

Honolulu County: about 1,566 sq mi of water, 72% of its total area
Maui County: about 1,237 sq mi of water, 52% of its total area
Hawaii County: about 1,058 sq mi of water, 21% of its total area

Using these numbers in a land search

Land area is not parcel count. A large rural county can hold fewer parcels than a small suburban one, so size alone says little about how busy its parcel map is.
Search, don't scroll. In a big county, type an address, owner name or parcel number into the viewer's search box, where it has one, instead of panning across the map.
Records follow the county line. Deeds, plats and tax bills are kept by the county where the parcel sits, so a tract that crosses a county line usually has a parcel number on each side.
Rounded figures. Land and water areas are rounded to whole square miles (one decimal for very small places). People per square mile is the 2023 estimate divided by land area.

Sources

U.S. Census Bureau Gazetteer files, 2020 county land and water area.
U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program, county totals, Vintage 2023 (July 1, 2023 estimates)
Platbookmapper county GIS directory (live data file behind our county pages, pulled October 22, 2026) for each official parcel viewer.
County seats: Wikidata (county seat property), cross-checked against Census place names.