Facts About Lanai


BIOLOGY   Lanai has a wide variety of plant, marine and animal life including Axis deer, Mouflon sheep, pheasant, quail, chukar partridge and wild turkey. Many species are rare and endangered including the giant Pacific Green Sea Turtle (which can grow to 400 pounds) and the humpback whale. Vegetation zones include: coastal, dryland forest, mixed open forest.

CLIMATE    At Lanai City, the average temperature ranges from 66 (°F) to 73 (°F) and the average annual rainfall is 37 inches - a very arid island.

CULTURAL HISTORY    Largely uninhabited until the 1500's, Lanai, as part of Maui County, is now a multi-cultural society with immigration from:

  • Polynesia - 700 A.D.
  • United States - 1820
  • China - 1852
  • Japan - 1868
  • Portugal - 1878
  • Puerto Rico - 1900
  • Korea - 1903
  • Philippines - 1906
ECONOMY     Formerly known as the "Pineapple Isle", Lanai was once the largest single pineapple plantation in the world - now reduced to less than 100 acres. Today, 98% of the land on Lanai is owned by the Lanai Company, Inc. (a development firm). Lanai's major source of annual income is tourism.

GEOGRAPHY    The Island of Lanai has an area of approximately 141 square miles with 47 miles of coastline. Lanai is 13 miles wide and 18 miles long, with only seventeen miles of paved road.

Lanai is:

  • located in Polynesia
  • near the center of the Pacific Ocean
  • just below the Tropic of Cancer
  • one of the most remote spots on Earth
  • 2,326 miles west of California
  • the sixth largest of the 8 main Hawaiian islands
  • the only location in Hawaii from which 5 other Hawaiian islands can be viewed.
GEOLOGY    Lanai (the fourth youngest island in the Hawaiian chain) was formed by a single shield volcano creating a volcanic land mass of rolling tablelands and steep, eroded gorges. Red lava cliffs and mesquite bushes give way to giant stands of towering Cook pines - and green mountains at higher elevations.

GOVERNMENT    In Lanai, as throughout the State, there is no separate municipal government. As part of Maui County, it has an elected mayor with a four-year term (two-term limit) and a nine-member council with two-year terms.

OFFICIAL COLOR AND FLOWER    The official color is yellow and the official flower is the kaunaoa.

POPULATION   

  • Resident population of 2,800 people
  • Ethnic percentages :
    • Hawaiian and Part Hawaiian - 26.2%
    • Caucasian - 21.6%
    • Japanese - 17.4%
    • Filipino - 15.8%
    • Mixed and Other - 19.0%

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