City profileHawaiiFiscal year 2025
How much federal money does Honolulu get?
Honolulu received $1.8 billion in federal awards in FY2025: $5,240 per resident, 49th of 99 large cities by total.In fiscal year 2025, federal agencies obligated $1.8 billion in awards whose place of performance is Honolulu, HI, about $5,240 per resident.
Honolulu is 39th of 99 large cities per resident
Federal awards per resident, FY2025, the 99 largest US cities on this site. Dashed line: median city.
What the money is
That is down 32.3% from FY2024 ($2.6 billion). Compared with FY2019, the last year before pandemic relief, it is up 48.2%. The largest share came as grants ($960.5 million). The Department of Education obligated the most ($338.5 million), and the largest program was Disaster Grants - Public Assistance (Presidentially Declared Disasters) ($207.5 million). By this measure Honolulu ranks 49th of the 99 large US cities on this site.
What is counted: contracts, grants, loans and payments that agencies report with this city as the place of performance (USAspending.gov city name HONOLULU, state HI). Payments to individuals, such as Social Security, are published only as county totals to protect privacy, so most of them do not show up at city level. For the full picture see the Hawaii page, which includes those payments.
Federal money to Honolulu by year
Honolulu: $1.8B in FY2025, up 48% on FY2019
Federal award obligations by fiscal year and type, FY2018–FY2026, nominal dollars. FY26* is preliminary and still filling in.
- Insurance and other
- Loans (subsidy cost)
- Direct payments
- Grants
- Contracts
View every year as a table
| Fiscal year | Contracts | Grants | Direct payments | Loans | Insurance and other | Total | Per resident |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2018 | $567.2M | $542.5M | $156.8M | $562,255 | $1.5M | $1.3B | – |
| FY2019 | $496.8M | $559.3M | $150.9M | $560,527 | $1.6M | $1.2B | – |
| FY2020 | $462.1M | $1.0B | $541.3M | $3.8M | $1.5M | $2.1B | $5,886 |
| FY2021 | $523.2M | $1.8B | $148.4M | $609,217 | $436,038 | $2.5B | $7,119 |
| FY2022 | $702.2M | $855.7M | $186.2M | $108,597 | $2.0M | $1.7B | $5,085 |
| FY2023 | $623.8M | $1.0B | $194.3M | -$233,834 | $2.9M | $1.8B | $5,393 |
| FY2024 | $824.5M | $1.6B | $230.5M | $1.3M | $681,817 | $2.6B | $7,723 |
| FY2025 | $550.0M | $960.5M | $278.4M | $1.7M | $821,485 | $1.8B | $5,240 |
| FY2026* | $414.5M | $704.2M | $243.8M | $211,649 | $2.3M | $1.4B | – |
Source: USAspending.gov (U.S. Treasury).
Cities with similar totals
Honolulu and the cities ranked either side of it
FY2025 federal awards performed in each city, total dollars.
| Anchorage, AK | $2.1 billion |
| Richmond, VA | $2.1 billion |
| Honolulu, HI (this page) | $1.8 billion |
| Irvine, CA | $1.7 billion |
| Mesa, AZ | $1.7 billion |
Who pays and for what, FY2025
The agencies that obligated the most to Honolulu, and the largest federal programs. Programs are federal Assistance Listings (formerly CFDA numbers); contracts have no listing number, so they do not appear there.
Top awarding agencies
| Agency | FY2025 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Education | $338.5 million | 18.9% |
| Department of Defense | $337.5 million | 18.8% |
| Department of Homeland Security | $317.9 million | 17.7% |
| Department of Housing and Urban Development | $288.0 million | 16.1% |
| Department of Health and Human Services | $101.3 million | 5.7% |
| Department of Commerce | $77.7 million | 4.3% |
| General Services Administration | $72.4 million | 4.0% |
| Department of Energy | $60.4 million | 3.4% |
| Department of Veterans Affairs | $45.5 million | 2.5% |
| National Science Foundation | $38.4 million | 2.1% |
Top programs
| Program | FY2025 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Disaster Grants - Public Assistance (Presidentially Declared Disasters) Assistance Listing 97.036 | $207.5 million | 11.6% |
| Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers Assistance Listing 14.871 | $178.7 million | 10.0% |
| Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies Assistance Listing 84.010 | $69.7 million | 3.9% |
| Federal Pell Grant Program Assistance Listing 84.063 | $50.6 million | 2.8% |
| Special Education Grants to States Assistance Listing 84.027 | $49.3 million | 2.8% |
| Impact Aid Assistance Listing 84.041 | $44.6 million | 2.5% |
| Grid Infrastructure Deployment and Resilience Assistance Listing 81.254 | $39.9 million | 2.2% |
| Native Hawaiian Education Assistance Listing 84.362 | $34.8 million | 1.9% |
| Public Housing Operating Fund Assistance Listing 14.850 | $30.2 million | 1.7% |
| Homeland Security Grant Program Assistance Listing 97.067 | $22.6 million | 1.3% |
Nearby on this site
Universities in Honolulu
Questions and answers
- How much federal money does Honolulu get?
- $1.8 billion in FY2025 in awards performed in Honolulu, HI, according to USAspending.gov. That excludes most payments to individuals, which are published only by county.
- How much is that per resident?
- About $5,240 per resident, using the Census Bureau's July 2025 estimate of 341,868 people.
- Which agency spends the most in Honolulu?
- The Department of Education, with $338.5 million in FY2025.
Sources and notes
- USAspending.gov (U.S. Department of the Treasury), API endpoints spending_over_time and spending_by_category, filtered by place of performance city (HONOLULU) in HI, fiscal years 2018–2026. Amounts are obligations in nominal dollars. Data retrieved 2026-10-04. Public domain.
- U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 city estimates (Urban Honolulu CDP).
- How the figures are built, and what they leave out: sources and methods.