This factsheet examines gasoline spending alongside housing cost burdens and transportation patterns to better understand how rising gasoline prices are intensifying affordability pressures across households in California, with a focus on disparities affecting Latino households. This analysis draws on multiple data sources, including the 2022 and 2023 Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES), the 2024 American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample (ACS PUMS), and the 2017 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) California add-on. Authors combine information on gasoline expenditures, vehicle ownership, and travel behavior to estimate how recent gasoline price increases affect household gasoline costs.

Findings: Rising gasoline prices are placing a disproportionate burden on Latino households in California. Latino households tend to have longer commutes, rely more on driving, and are more likely to rely on older and less fuel-efficient vehicles than non-Latino households. These patterns increase both gasoline spending and overall exposure to rising gasoline costs, while higher housing cost burdens, particularly among renters, further limit households’ ability to absorb these additional expenses.

Importantly, these dynamics were already present before the most recent increases in gasoline prices, suggesting that current affordability pressures may be even more severe. Even if gasoline prices decline, reductions are often gradual, meaning Latino households remain vulnerable not only to current cost pressures but also to future price increases.

This article features Arturo Vargas Bustamante, senior fellow at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR).