While the number of Californians ages 12 and older who said they experienced a hate act increased in 2024, a new UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR) study showed how someone’s likelihood to experience a hate act was associated with race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual identity, disability, and housing status.

About 1 in 11 (9%) Californians ages 12 and older experienced a hate act in the previous year, according to data from the 2023 and 2024 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS).

Yet more than 1 in 4 (26%) transgender and gender-expansive people, 20% of adults who reported unstable housing, 18% of Native Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders (NHPI), and 16% of Black or African Americans had experienced hate acts in the year prior to being surveyed, according to CHIS data.

“Hate is not felt equally among people in California,” said Alex Bates, CHIS senior data analyst and lead author of the study, which, in addition to using people’s reported experiences, also used predictive modeling to describe how experiences of hate can vary across populations and regions. “Our study’s findings about how different groups are affected by hate are critically important for knowing how to address the serious negative mental and physical health consequences that experiencing or witnessing hate acts can have.” 

Hate acts include both hate crimes, such as physical violence, and other noncriminal incidents, such as verbal abuse or insults, that are motivated by bias against people based on their identities, characteristics, or beliefs.

The California Department of Justice estimates that reported hate crimes increased by 142% (PDF) between 2015 and 2024. And 2024 CHIS data showed that 3.1 million Californians ages 12 and older said they directly experienced a hate act in the year before they were surveyed, which was half a million more people than in the 2023 CHIS data.

Race and ethnicity

Examining the data by race and ethnicity, researchers found that 18% of NHPIs in California experienced a hate act in the previous year, which was highest among racial and ethnic categories, followed by 16% of Black or African American, 16% of multiracial, 13% of Middle Eastern or North African, 13% of American Indian or Alaska Native, 10% of Asian, 9% of Latinx, and 8% of white Californians.

Sexual identity and gender identity

The study found that LGBT Californians also experienced a disproportionate share of hate acts. Statewide, more than 1 in 4 (26%) transgender and gender-expansive CHIS respondents said they had experienced a hate act in the past year, more than three times the rate for cisgender respondents (8%).

Respondents who identified as sexually diverse (lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, or another nonheterosexual identity) were twice as likely to have experienced hate acts compared to heterosexual respondents (16% vs. 8%).

Disability and housing status

The study also looked at experiences with hate among adults with a disability, as well as among adults with unstable housing. Statewide, adults living with a disability experienced hate incidents at a rate nearly twice as high as the rate for those without a disability (12% vs. 7%).

Among adults who reported their housing as fairly or very unstable, 1 in 5 (20%) had experienced hate within the past year, a rate nearly three times as high as the rate for those with stable housing (7%).

Regional variations among predicted rates of experiencing hate

To get a more precise idea about how people’s experiences with hate compare throughout California, the study divided the state into seven regions to study predicted rates of hate experiences across different demographic groups. The predicted rates were based on patterns across all regions and groups to compensate for small population sizes.

The predicted rate of experiencing a hate act was 30% for Black or African American Californians in the Northern/Sierra counties, which was more than three times higher than the state average of 9% for all Californians 12 and older.

For transgender and gender-expansive individuals, the predicted rate of experiencing hate was highest in the Greater Bay Area (39%), with sexually diverse individuals also having the highest predicted rates in the Greater Bay Area (22%).

“The Bay Area’s strong support for LGBTQ+-residents may be associated with greater awareness of hate experiences for these populations, though our data cannot determine why these patterns occur,” Bates said. “This proves once again the importance of data and the California Health Interview Survey.”

Among adults with a disability, statistically stable predicted rates of hate ranged from a high of 16% in the Central Coast to a low of 11% in other Southern California counties (Orange, San Bernardino, Imperial, San Diego, and Riverside).

For adults with unstable housing, the predicted rate of hate acts ranged from a high of 35% in the Sacramento area to a low of 16% in other Southern California counties.

In 2023, the California Civil Rights Department began sponsoring questions that were added to the annual CHIS to gain a clearer understanding of the overall impact of hate acts across California. CHIS is the largest population-representative state health survey in the United States.

One of the report’s key recommendations was to provide non-police options for reporting hate acts and for accessing victim support because of historic distrust between some communities and law enforcement.

“Our understanding about how many people are affected by hate acts comes from data,” said Susan Babey, director of research at the UCLA CHPR and co-author of the study. “Without this information, it would be so much more difficult to create and direct resources to the areas and people that could most use the help.”