How best to improve L.A. County residents’ lives? Ask them

Over the last five years, Kyla Thomas has gotten to know Los Angeles County and its residents like few others.

As director of LABarometer, Thomas, a sociologist at the Center for Economic and Social Research (CESR) based at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, leads an effort to capture the pulse of the county’s residents twice each year on issues affecting their daily lives, from rent costs and neighborhood conditions to transportation and health care.

“It’s a deep dive into how Angelenos feel about important issues and their living conditions,” Thomas says of LABarometer, a biannual survey of some 2,000 adults from households across L.A. County. Panelists comprise a representative sample of the county’s population, making the survey a valuable tool to inform policy, research and action.

“We’re tracking and analyzing social and economic conditions throughout the county, then sharing those findings with the public, policymakers, practitioners and other researchers, says Thomas. “Our ultimate goal is to help L.A. become better, stronger and healthier.”

Paul Simon, former chief science officer of L.A. County’s Department of Public Health, says LABarometer proved its value almost immediately. He worked with Thomas shortly after the survey launched to improve the department’s efforts to aid Angelenos during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The survey is an immensely important source of information on the social and economic conditions in the county,” he said, adding that it provides information critical to improving population health and reducing health inequities.

LABarometer inspired by Understanding America Study

LABarometer was inspired by CESR’s signature project: the Understanding America Study (UAS), established in 2014. Highly prized by researchers nationwide, UAS gathers and makes available data related to housing, financial literacy, health, diet and more from a nationally representative sample of nearly 15,000 American households.

When CESR leadership pitched the idea of developing a survey panel focused exclusively on life in L.A., Thomas volunteered to take the lead with support from USC Dornsife colleagues Marco Angrisani, associate professor (research) of economics; Ying Liu, research scientist at CESR; and Kate Weber, executive director of Public Exchange. Evan Sandlin, research manager at CESR, later joined the effort, as well.

“We never envisioned LABarometer as a countywide carbon copy of UAS,” Thomas said. The team wanted something focused on the issues most relevant and important to L.A. So, Thomas and her colleagues met with more than 50 community organizations to determine which topics to focus on. Those conversations shaped the foundation of LABarometer and the two reports it releases each year.

The annual spring report focuses on mobility and sustainability, hitting on topics such as transportation access and costs as well as climate-related topics like natural disaster preparedness, heat exposure and sustainability-related behaviors.

Months later, the fall report turns its attention to livability and affordability. Questions cover neighborhood quality of life, including access to important goods, services and amenities, as well as the costs of key resources, such as housing, health care, food and education.

“The survey results related to food access and security have been central to our efforts to build support for investments in the food system,” said Alison Frazzini, policy director for L.A. County’s Chief Sustainability Office. “It has enabled us to leverage COVID response and recovery funding to … make the local food economy more resilient.”

Since each biannual survey engages many of the same residents, LABarometer is a valuable tool for measuring trends and shifts in residents’ attitudes and circumstances. Earlier this year, Thomas found that even though public transportation use has been rising since 2021, it’s still significantly below pre-pandemic levels.  And Thomas made national news in 2021 for reporting that 10% of Angelenos planned to leave the county in the coming year — a 40% increase from 2019.

LABarometer data drives thoughtful action for Los Angeles

As Thomas and CESR leaders hoped, LABarometer has become a resource to promote thoughtful action by policymakers and community leaders.

In the early days of the pandemic, for instance, the survey provided critical data on L.A. County residents’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviors related to COVID, according to Simon. “We were able to track trends over time to assess the impact of our efforts to promote the protective behaviors needed to stem the spread of the virus prior to the availability of vaccines. As vaccines became available, the survey provided invaluable information that helped us address residents’ concerns about those,” he said.

During that same period, the county’s chief sustainability office (CSO) worked with Thomas to develop a survey module to assess the pandemic’s impact on food access. The resulting data helped the CSO determine how to distribute funding and resources. More recently, the CSO cited LABarometer data in its Climate Vulnerability Assessment, which is guiding a range of climate adaptation, emergency preparedness and community resiliency efforts.

“I got into sociology because of my passion for positive change, so it’s gratifying to see the LABarometer inform action and have a real impact on people’s lives,” says Thomas, whose research focuses on discrimination and inequality.

While the LABarometer’s four core themes of livability, affordability, mobility and sustainability have remained consistent from the beginning, the research team has incorporated new areas of focus based on the needs of community partners. At the request of the L.A. County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, for instance, the panel added questions related to public transportation to help the agency better understand the sentiments of residents and prioritize improvements.

Evolving LABarometer

Thomas notes that it’s been striking to see “how much stays the same” from year to year with LABarometer. She also sees an opportunity to gain more data and greater insight into life in Los Angeles — both its benefits and its challenges. She recently assessed data from the fall 2024 report covering affordability and livability and found an uptick in the number of people moving out of their homes due to rampant rent increases.

“We want to help policy leaders understand why people are moving out, so they can consider appropriate interventions,” Thomas says.

Looking ahead, Thomas aims to expand the LABarometer panel’s size and its network of collaborators. “The bigger the panel, the more we can say about specific communities within L.A.,” she said. “Our dream is a panel of 5,000.”

And cultivating relationships with more government agencies, nonprofits, community organizations and researchers will deepen the insights the survey can bring to the public domain, particularly as the region braces for the 2028 Olympics.

“To best serve our community, we’ve got to evolve the survey as the county changes,” she says. “That means identifying important new issues and tracking Angelenos attitudes and opinions on them.”