The U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey aims to serve as an annual snapshot on income, housing and health insurance that helps local leaders and businesses understand the changes taking place in their communities. But in Hawaii’s case, the data yields a picture that’s out of focus with reality.

Take the 2017 survey’s nationwide ranking, released last week, in which Hawaii had the fourth-highest median household income and the third-lowest poverty rate. The findings echoed the 2016 survey. That economic picture is fuzzy at best because the data points fail to thoroughly fold in Hawaii’s high cost of living.

Also released was the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure, which covers a three-year period. In both reports, households with insufficient resources to meet basic needs are tagged as part of a poverty rate. However, the supplemental measure factors in government benefits such as food stamps, income tax credit and housing costs — all cost-of-living details not included in the community survey.

In its perusal of both reports, the Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law &Economic Justice persuasively points to the supplemental measure as a more clear and accurate picture.

A comparison shows that while the community survey’s official poverty average from 2015-2017 makes Hawaii look like an economic paradise with the 10th- lowest rate among the states, the supplemental measure flips that status, giving Hawaii the 10th- highest rate.

The latter ranking certainly rings truer in a state where the median price for a single-family home on Oahu hit a record $810,000 in August. A chronic shortage of affordable housing stubbornly stands as Hawaii’s most daunting cost-of-living challenge. And the hits to the wallet don’t stop there, of course. We have the hands-down highest electricity rates in the nation. And even the price for a gallon of milk is routinely double the national average.

The Appleseed Center further notes that while the community survey pegged its 2017 official poverty threshold for a family with two adults and two children at nearly $24,860, the supplemental measure’s figure was just shy of $36,240 for the same family, renting their home in urban Honolulu. Again, the latter is a more realistic glimpse of the price tag tied to living in Hawaii.

It’s encouraging, though, that comparing the latest supplemental measure to the last one, which covered 2013-15, Hawaii’s poverty rate has decreased by some 19,000 people.

According to the community survey, in 2017 Hawaii had the third-highest median housing costs for homeowners with mortgages, who were shelling out nearly $2,340 each month. The Aloha State had the nation’s highest median monthly housing costs for renters ($1,575) — marking a 4 percent increase over 2016’s figure.

Hawaii’s leaders are attempting to put a dent in some of the cost-of-living challenges. For example, earlier this year the Legislature appropriated $200 million to help finance new affordable rental housing. And in July a state-led panel advised that an additional $1 billion should follow over the next decade to further address Hawaii’s shortage of affordable apartments.

But a big pile of cash alone will not bring about a quick fix. Not when progress has been stalled for decades by obstacles including a lack of affordable land, insufficient infrastructure, high development costs, government regulation, community opposition and environmental concerns. Still, state leaders must press forward in efforts to expand the affordable housing inventory as more residents are struggling to make financial ends meet.

Meanwhile, to better help themselves, families would benefit from increased financial literacy, as well as seizing educational and training opportunities as a ladder to better employment options.