New figures show 1 in 6 high school students in Hawaii report being bullied online or via text messages, and 20 percent say they have been bullied while on school property.

A national survey also found nearly one-fourth of Hawaii middle school students have been victims of cyberbullying, and 41 percent reported being bullied at school at least once.

Officials and advocates say the statistics released Thursday illustrate that Hawaii has a long way to go to end bullying in schools.

"I think everybody acknowledges that this is a major issue," said Mela­nie Bailey, a parent advocate who has testified at the Legislature in support of more bullying prevention and monitoring at schools. "If 20 percent of people at the workplace felt threatened, you’d have lawsuits left and right."

The figures come from the 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Local and national officials use the survey to guide health risk prevention and intervention.

The survey, administered every two years nationwide and overseen by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is the only national system aimed at monitoring a range of health risk behaviors among the nation’s youth. Nationwide more than 15,000 high school students participated in the survey in 2011.

In Hawaii 4,329 students at 36 high schools were included in the survey, one of the biggest samples ever in the islands. The survey also included 5,109 Hawaii middle school students. Since most states don’t administer surveys to middle-schoolers, national data are not available.

The report does not say precisely when the survey was taken, but it covers roughly the 2011 calendar year. Students are asked about incidents that occurred in the months leading up to the survey.

Overall, Hawaii officials said the results are mixed, showing Hawaii high school students are less likely to smoke and drink and are more physically active than their peers on the mainland and are downing fewer sugary sodas than they were in 2009.

But the survey shows students still grapple with school safety issues, are engaging in risky sexual behavior and are more likely to be overweight than their peers on the mainland.

Advocates are pointing to the bullying statistics as a particular area of concern.

The 2011 survey was the first time the cyberbullying question had been asked of students nationwide, and officials said the figures provide a base line for future comparisons.

Hawaii’s cyberbullying prevalence among high school students was slightly lower than the national average of 16.2 percent. Girls were more likely to be cyberbullied, with 18 percent reporting an incident in the last year.

The percentage of Hawaii high-schoolers who reported being bullied on school property was the same as the national average of 20 percent.

Last year the state Education Department began an anti-bullying program aimed at better identifying and helping students being bullied and increasing efforts to stop bullying before it starts.

Tonya Lowery St. John, science and research group epidemiologist at the state Department of Health, said Hawaii is "not where we want to be with bullying." But, she noted, other measures of school safety appear to be improving.

For example, the percentage of high school students who reported being in a fight declined from 10.2 percent in 2009 to 8.1 percent in 2011. Also in 2011, 13.9 percent of high school students said they carried a weapon to school in the last 30 days, down 2 percentage points from 2009.

Also positive were figures involving teen suicide risk. In 2009 Hawaii had the highest rates in the nation of teens who said they were seriously considering suicide, had made a suicide plan or had attempted suicide.

Two years later Hawaii has improved on all three of those indicators.

"This is really encouraging to us," said Nancy Kern, Health Department suicide prevention coordinator, who noted that in the last two years, schools and the department have increased awareness about suicide prevention and beefed up training for teachers.

The survey also showed that 32 percent of high school students described themselves as slightly or very overweight, an increase of 2 percentage points from last year. Nationally, 29 percent of high-schoolers said they were overweight.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.