The latest annual California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) offers a more precise look at how the 2025 wildfires affected Californians’ health and well-being. The data also reveal trends in the health of immigrants, low-income individuals, and transgender and gender-expansive communities.
The 2025 CHIS data show:
- 500,000 more California adults said their mental health was harmed as a result of wildfire smoke in the past two years, rising from 1.6 million in 2024 to 2.1 million in 2025.
- 45% of the lowest-income Californians struggle to pay for enough food.
- More people who witnessed hate incidents cited ancestry, origin, language or perceived immigration status as the reason the individual was targeted.
SSRS collaborated with UCLA on the methodology and collected data, under contract with the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.