Miserable Angelenos reveal record-low quality of life in new survey — here’s why

Life in Los Angeles isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

A new survey found that LA residents are more unsatisfied with life in the city than at any point in the past decade-plus — with frustrated Angelenos citing the cost of living, education and traffic as their biggest gripes.

The survey from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs shows that LA County residents’ overall quality of life score dropped to a record low of 52, the worst showing in the report’s 11-year history.

Six of the nine categories measured also hit all-time lows, while eight declined from last year.

“Education, transportation/traffic and cost of living — already the lowest-rated areas — saw the steepest declines, reinforcing the ongoing strain of affordability and infrastructure challenges,” the survey said.

Angelenos’ frustration comes as the cash-strapped LA Unified School District agreed to hand its staff hefty pay raises — even as the district’s students are scoring lower than the rest of the state and its leadership faces probes from federal and local authorities.

Zev Yaroslavsky, director of the Los Angeles Initiative at UCLA Luskin, also pointed to rising living costs, immigration enforcement activity, and the fallout from the Altadena and Palisades fires as key forces weighing on residents’ day-to-day lives.

“Los Angeles County residents’ rating of their quality of life has been in decline since the peak of the COVID pandemic,” he said.

More than 26% of residents reported losing income due to the wildfires, and about 1 in 5 are still dealing with unrecovered losses. Frustration is widespread, with 56% dissatisfied with how local government handled recovery efforts.

The survey polled 1,400 LA County residents between March 15 and March 29, 2026, with a 2.6% margin of error.

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