Los Angeles County residents are the least satisfied with their quality of life now than at any time in the past decade, according to a University of California, Los Angeles survey published Wednesday.
The UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs released its 11 annual L.A. County Quality of Life Index, revealing an all-time low index score of 52 points.
The score is based on residents’ level of satisfaction with nine categories: education, transportation and traffic, cost of living, relations between people of different races and religions, the resident’s own neighborhood, public safety, the environment, jobs and the economy and healthcare.
“Of the nine categories, eight of the nine went down in satisfaction,” Zev Yaroslavsky, the director of the Los Angeles Initiative at UCLA Luskin, said. “That has never happened before.”
Healthcare was the only category that remained unchanged from last year.
Cost of living, traffic and education, which were already the lowest-rated topics in 2025, saw the steepest decline.
“So many people I already know who left the city have just been priced out,” Graham Millington, an LA resident of 30 years, said. “If you can’t afford the rents that are rising, and the job opportunities that are shrinking, what’s left for you?”
The study also analyzed the impacts of immigration enforcement on the decline in quality of life in L.A.
Nearly one-third of respondents reported knowing someone who lost income or was afraid to leave their home due to Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.
“I thought this was the most important finding of our survey this year: the broad impact that the immigration sweeps have had on our society,” Yaroslavsky said.
The UCLA survey also highlighted the effects of the 2025 wildfires, such as the Eaton Fire in Altadena and the Palisades Fire in Pacific Palisades.
Due to the fires, 25% of residents reported losing income, and only a small percentage said they have fully recovered.
“We were impacted by it,” said Maya Demontreux, who grew up in Topanga and now lives in Echo Park. “It was just sad to see so many people continue to be displaced and, watching all these places I grew up around, burn.”
The study also found that LA residents’ attitudes towards fire recovery efforts were largely negative. More than half of respondents reported dissatisfaction with the local government’s wildfire recovery efforts, including rebuilding.
“I don’t know if it’s just because I’m older now than I was 10 years ago, but I do feel less optimistic,” Demontreux said. “For me, though, a big part of it is politically. I have less faith in institutions. I feel like we’ve been failed by a lot of people.”