Immigrant families from Asia, a relatively high rate of interracial marriage and the fact that many white people who move to the islands are retirees are likely factors behind Hawaii leading the nation, by far, in the portion of residents of Asian ancestry, a population expert says.

John Butler, associate dean of academic affairs at the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Shidler College of Business, said the U.S. Census Bureau figures won’t surprise most people here.

"I could see why people in other states might be surprised that the (Asian) percentages are so high, although certainly no one here would be surprised," Butler, a professor of management and culture, said Thursday.

Recent data show 56.9 percent of Hawaii’s population identified as Asian, either alone or in combination with one or more races, as of July 1, according to an analysis of U.S. Census figures released Thursday by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

The percentage dwarfs the No. 2 state on the list, California, which counts 15.8 percent of its population as Asian or part-Asian. The analysis said 43 percent of people in Hawaii identified as white, alone or in combination with another race.

Nonwhite groups made up more than three-quarters of the state’s population, with only 22.8 percent of people identifying as white and not Hispanic.

"I suspect many Caucasians who come here come here at an older age, some of them perhaps wealthy and retiring beyond child-rearing age," Butler said. "And I suspect some of the ethnically Asian groups that we have here are having larger families, and I think some of the groups still have relatives that may be coming in as new immigrants to the United States.

"The other thing: I think we have a reasonably unprejudiced population here with respect to romance," he added. "We have a lot of intermarriage, so I think the percentage of people who would identify as 100 percent Caucasian would be decreasing."

Despite a population of just less than 1.4 million, Hawaii ranks fifth in the country in the number of people of Asian ancestry, with nearly 792,000 such residents. California tops that list with nearly 6 million Asians, followed by New York, Texas and New Jersey.

Oahu has a higher share of nonwhite "minorities" than other parts of Hawaii, the state analysis said. On Oahu, 80.6 percent of people identified as minorities, while 69.9 percent of people were minorities in Kauai, 69.3 percent on Hawaii island and 68.4 percent in Maui County.

As expected, Hawaii had the greatest percentage and greatest overall number of Native Hawaiians among the states.

According to the analysis, 26.2 percent of residents here identified as Native Hawaiian, either alone or in combination with one or more races, far ahead of Alaska, second at 1.7 percent.

The overall population of 365,000 Native Hawaiian residents also was first, although by a much smaller margin. California’s population of 334,000 Native Hawaiians was second, and Washington state a distant third with 78,000.

The slim margin with California was somewhat surprising to Butler, although he said he did not have much hard data on why.

"I would’ve thought we would’ve had more of absolute number. … I’m kind of surprised that any one state would have the same number that we have," Butler said. "The only thing I can assume is economic opportunities were greater in California at some point that encouraged people to move there."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.