At a gubernatorial debate held by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) last week, Republican candidate James “Duke” Aiona cited a troubling statistic about family households in Hawaii.

Family and family values are an important aspect of Lt. Gov. James “Duke” Aiona‘s gubernatorial campaign.

At a debate held by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA), the Republican candidate said: “In many instances, especially in the Native Hawaiian community, as a general rule here in Hawaii, 40 percent of all families are without a dad… Our children are being raised by single parents.” (Aiona’s statement begins at 2:00 in the video below)

If this is true, it’s a telling statistic. Civil Beat looked into it.

Aiona made two assertions:

• As a general rule, 40 percent of Hawaii families are single parent households with no father.
• The above statistic is especially true among Native Hawaiians.

Let’s test Aiona’s first point that 40 percent of households in Hawaii are fatherless.
In Hawaii, there are 129,322 households total with children under 18. Of those, 23,619 households — or 18 percent — have no father present, according to the 2009 State of Hawaii data book [pdf].

That statistic illustrates the problem is less than half as prevalent as Aiona’s original claim.

As for his second contention — that Native Hawaiians are disproportionately represented — the lieutenant governor may be on to something.

When we looked only at Native Hawaiian populations, a 2003 study showed there were 4,847 live births by Native Hawaiian mothers in the state. Of those, 2,686 babies — or 55 percent — were born to unwed mothers according to the 2006 Hawaiian data book [pdf] , published by OHA.

The following year, in 2004, there were 5,029 total births by Native Hawaiian mothers with 2,854 of those — or 56 percent — to unwed mothers.

But it’s important to keep in mind that each Native Hawaiian birth does not necessarily represent an individual household. The OHA statistics also don’t take into account whether or not there is a father in the household.

Given the data that’s available, it’s not possible to verify the exact number of fatherless Native Hawaiian households with children. It’s a case of a politician using a potentially shocking statistic that isn’t supportable.