Oʻahu
The Gathering Place, home to Honolulu and two-thirds of Hawaii’s people
More than a million people, about seven in every ten Hawaii residents, live on Oʻahu, an island of only 597 square miles (1,545 km²). The 2020 census counted 1,016,508. The island is the eroded remains of two shield volcanoes, whose ridges survive as the Waiʻanae Range in the west, topped by Kaʻala at 4,003 feet (1,220 m), and the fluted green cliffs of the Koʻolau Range in the east, with a broad central plain between them. Later eruptions built landmarks such as Diamond Head, called Lēʻahi in Hawaiian.
In 1795, Kamehameha I won the Battle of Nuʻuanu here, a decisive step toward uniting the islands, and in 1845 Kamehameha III moved the kingdom's capital from Lahaina to Honolulu. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor killed more than 2,400 Americans and pulled the United States into World War II. Today the island holds the state capital, major military bases, Waikīkī and the surf breaks of the North Shore. Its common nickname, the Gathering Place, was popularized as a translation in the early 1900s.