Nearly half of low-income Californians could not afford enough food in the past year, and one in 11 residents reported experiencing a hate act, according to a new report from the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) released by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

The 2024 survey focused on ongoing challenges in food security, health care access, and discrimination across California. 

Researchers said the data shows how inequality continues to affect millions of residents, even as some areas like telehealth and substance use show small improvements.

“Health happens in your neighborhoods,” said Dr. Ninez Ponce, CHIS principal investigator and director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. “This data is a tool for advocacy and understanding disparities that are otherwise hidden at the county or city level.”

More than 20,000 adults, teens, and children were interviewed in 2024, with questions covering healthcare access, economic stability, and community well-being.

Researchers found that 47.2% of Californians living below twice the federal poverty level said they struggled to afford enough food in the past 12 months. That’s nearly one in two low-income residents.

The rates were even higher for single-parent households with children, where 61.3% said they didn’t have enough to eat. 

About one-third of low-income Californians received food stamps through CalFresh, but cuts to the program this year could make things worse.

“These trends are especially concerning,” said Todd Hughes, director of CHIS. “It’s going to become more and more important for state-based surveys like CHIS to fill federal gaps in data collection.”

Hughes mentioned that the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced plans to end its national food security survey, meaning state surveys like CHIS will soon be one of the few ways to track hunger at the local level.

The report also found that 15.4% of Californians delayed or skipped medical care they needed in the past year, and about half of them never got the care at all.

The main reasons were cost, lack of insurance, and other insurance-related issues.

Transgender and non-binary Californians were about twice as likely to delay or miss medical care compared with other adults.

CHIS estimates there are about 394,000 Californians who identify as transgender or gender-expansive, most of whom identify as non-binary.

Adults with disabilities were also much more likely to report having trouble accessing care or dealing with medical debt.

Telehealth visits dropped slightly, with 37.9% of adults saying they had a video or phone appointment in the past year. 

Still, about 60% of those who used telehealth said they preferred it to in-person visits, showing it remains an important option for many.

The share of adults who said they drank alcohol or used marijuana in the past month dropped slightly in 2024 compared to past years.

Researchers found 64.3% of adults who have ever had alcohol drank within the past 30 days down from around 68% or 69% in previous years. Marijuana use also dropped slightly, and fewer people reported using marijuana for medical reasons.

A growing number of Californians said they experienced hate-related incidents.

About 9% of people 12 and older, or roughly 3.1 million Californians, said they experienced a hate act in the past year up from 8% in 2023. More than 1 in 7 said they witnessed a hate act.

“About one in every 11 Californians directly experienced acts of hate in the past year,” said CHIS researcher Alex Bates, who co-authored a new fact sheet on the topic. “These findings highlight the need for continued data collection and community-centered approaches to reduce hate in California.”

Most of the hate acts reported were verbal abuse or insults (83%), but some involved cyberbullying, property damage, or physical violence.

More than half of the victims, 55% said they were targeted because of their race or skin color, and 40% said they were targeted because of multiple parts of their identity, such as race, gender, or sexual orientation.

Researchers said they plan to keep expanding CHIS to help more communities access data. The team recently launched the AskCHIS Neighborhood Edition, an online tool that lets users view health data by census tract, and announced a new Data Equity Center to help other states build similar models.

Dr. Ponce said the center is also working to reach more immigrant and limited-English-speaking households.

“We’re investing in new methodological tools to reach communities that have historically been undercounted,” she said.

For more information, visit healthpolicy.ucla.edu.