Data belong to the people.
As we look back on 2025, we have to be honest: It has been a difficult year.
One week into the new year, wildfires swept across southern California, destroying homes and neighborhoods, taking lives, and devastating communities.
At the same time, federal data began “disappearing” from government websites, threatening scientific research and public health, and prompting data rescue efforts by researchers, archivists, advocates, and organizations like ours who understand the value of data and that data belong to the people.
Data on sexual orientation and gender identity, climate change, race and ethnicity, child and adolescent health, aging, COVID, mental health, vaccines, HIV, violence and hate, substance use, reproductive care, employment, food and hunger, even cancer and chronic diseases, removed. Surveys defunded and abandoned.
Then in June, immigration raids caused widespread fear across our city, state, and eventually our country, targeting people at their workplaces, schools, farms, and neighborhoods. As California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) data over the last decade have shown, anti-immigrant rhetoric and restrictive immigration policies have harmful effects on mental and physical health. And a new study by one of our affiliates found that mass deportations could cost the California economy $275 billion, disrupting critical industries and businesses.
As all of this continues, we want you to know that we at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR) will not stop what we’re doing. We will continue producing data that examine health disparities, dig deep into the social drivers of health — the non-medical, environmental, and social conditions that influence health, and that have made CHIS a critically trusted resource and model for thousands of people over the years.
In this year’s report, you’ll see some of the ways we’ve done that: a series of studies on hate incidents, deep dives into the mental health needs of LGBTQ and American Indian and Alaska Native communities, gaps in child care, highlights from the latest CHIS on the physical and mental health effects of wildfires, housing and food insecurity, medical debt, and delayed care among vulnerable communities.
If there is a way that CHIS and the UCLA CHPR can help — adding new questions to the survey, oversampling underrepresented communities, conducting follow-on studies and in-depth interviews, please reach out to us. If you’re a reporter, advocate, or legislator in need of data, we can help you. If you’re considering developing a local or state health survey like CHIS, let’s talk.
We are in this together.
As we reflect on 2025 and look ahead to 2026, which marks the 25th anniversary of the California Health Interview Survey, we know that we are standing strong today because of people like you.
Our dedicated staff, some of whom have been with us since the beginning. Our CHIS data users and data sharers, our generous funders and our community partners, our advisory board and technical advisory committees, the tens of thousands of people who take the survey each year and help us tell the story of California.
These individuals represent every corner of the state — urban and rural communities, diverse cultures, languages, and life experiences. Thank you for sharing your time and your truths so that we can understand what health and well-being really look like across California.
In this annual report, you’ll read about some of the ways your data have made a difference. From critical research to community advocacy, statewide health reports and county dashboards, health needs assessments, legislation, and so much more, CHIS data power the tools and stories that inform decision-making and drive change. And those data belong to the people.
With sincere gratitude and hope for 2026,
Ninez and Todd
