At the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) and UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, we know how valuable data can be and we are committed to making our data accessible to the public. 

Having access to reliable and accurate data can help people make informed decisions. It can empower people to understand complex issues, it can promote scientific research, innovation, and it can lead to more informed decision-making and progress. Whether you’re a policymaker fighting for the needs of your legislative district, a researcher working on an important study, a community organization advocating for program resources, a journalist writing a story, or a concerned citizen, CHIS has a wide range of publicly available web tools and data, as well as confidential data that can be accessed through an application. 

Not sure what you need? Learn more about our public use and confidential data.
 

AskCHIS™

Comprehensive, authoritative, easy-to-use, and free: AskCHIS™ is an online data query system that allows you to quickly search for health statistics at the county, region, and state level. 

With more than 1.7 million queries since launch, AskCHIS™ is used by health experts, policymakers, journalists, researchers, advocates, and community organizations to quickly get health data for grant proposals, needs assessments, research, news reporting, policymaking, and much more. 

AskCHIS

AskCHIS™ covered a very broad range of health topics, with more than 530 total variables/topics in 2023.

Topics include:

  • Health care access: including delays and barriers to care
  • Health insurance coverage
  • Health conditions: including diabetes, asthma, heart disease
  • Health status
  • Health behaviors: including tobacco, alcohol, and drug use
  • Prescription pain killer use
  • COVID-19 
  • Mental health
  • Childhood experiences
  • Housing discrimination
  • Hate incidents
  • Public program participation
  • Climate change
  • Guns and firearms
  • Caregiving
  •  …and much more

AskCHIS™ data can be viewed across a range of sociodemographic factors, including: age, gender, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender identity, income and poverty level, employment status, education, residency in U.S., language, family and marital status, and military service.

AskCHIS™ Neighborhood Edition (NE)

AskCHIS™ Neighborhood Edition (or AskCHIS™ NE) is an online data dissemination and visualization platform powered by the California Health Interview Survey. AskCHIS™ Neighborhood Edition (or AskCHIS™ NE) is an online data dissemination and visualization platform powered by the California Health Interview Survey. With AskCHIS™ NE, you can search for top health topics at granular levels of geography (ZIP code, city, county, legislative district, and census tract) and produce tables, thematic maps, and bar charts for easy visualization. 

askchis neighborhood edition ne

Using a sophisticated modeling technique called Small Area Estimation (SAE), AskCHIS™ NE provides local health departments, policymakers, legislators, community
organizations, researchers, and other stakeholders the data needed to target health interventions based on a neighborhood’s specific needs.

AskCHIS™ NE has data available on the following topics:
⦁    Health status
⦁    Mental health
⦁    Delays in receiving care
⦁    Uninsurance
⦁    Food insecurity
⦁    Tobacco
⦁    Asthma
⦁    Diabetes
⦁    Heart disease
⦁    Obesity
⦁    Oral health
⦁    Sugar drinks

Looking for a broader range of topics? AskCHIS™ may be the better option for you. 

Additionally, the AskCHIS™ NE Application Programming Interface (API) gives web developers, programmers, and data analysts on-demand access to the most current health information from AskCHIS NE for all California counties, cities, congressional districts, ZIP codes, and census tracts. For a web developer, this means programmatic access to estimates that can be used for data portals, visualizations, and clinical applications. For data analysts, it means bringing granular health information directly into statistical software that can be merged with outside data for more layered research and analysis.

If you don’t need access to data for all indicators or all geographic areas, the AskCHIS™ NE Individual Data Request might be a better option for you. It provides users with a statewide data file for a single specific health indicator for the specific level of geography that you choose.

For more information and pricing on both of these tools, contact AskCHIS NE.
 

Health Profiles

Health Profiles provide quick and easy access to commonly requested health indicators from the CHIS in easy-to-read PDF documents. The profiles deliver health estimates on top topics, such as insurance status, disease prevalence, health behaviors, and overall health status for multiple age groups (adults, children, and teens), racial and ethnic groups, and geographic regions (counties, legislative districts, regions, SPAs, and HHSAs).

Public Use Files (PUFs)

Dig deep into California's health issues with our comprehensive statewide CHIS data files on a variety of topics. Public Use Files (PUFs) enable researchers to customize and run their own statistical code. The files are available in a variety of data formats, including SAS and STATA.

PUFs include microdata files, hundreds of variables and detailed demographic information, and a data dictionary and survey questionnaire, and are designed for advanced data users. 

The PUFs are free and accessible to anyone via a brief application. 
 

Confidential Data

Researchers can apply to analyze confidential CHIS data, data sensitive variables, and/or geo-coded data through the Data Access Center (DAC). 

Access to confidential CHIS data requires a research application, review, and approval. Researchers can submit an application through the application portal, and can edit, check the status of their applications, and keep track of active, pending, and expired projects.

Resources

Get help with analyzing CHIS data or access CHIS variable dictionaries, which contain descriptions of all variables in the entire source data set including those not available in the Public Use Files.

Why Use CHIS Data?

1.7 million+

lifetime queries run by users in AskCHIS™ and AskCHIS™ NE

10 million

different CHIS estimates can be explored in AskCHIS™, including 391 variables/topics in 2022

1,493

detailed variables for research available in the CHIS 2023 Public Use Files