California is home to an estimated 187,084 unhoused residents, according to the latest data. That means 24% of the country’s entire homeless population lives in California. Of those, an estimated 123,974 are “unsheltered,” meaning they sleep outside, in tents, in cars or in other places not meant for human habitation. Nearly half of the country’s unsheltered homeless population resides in California, making the Golden State the epicenter of the crisis nationwide.

That data is from January 2024. Those numbers should be taken with a grain of salt, as they’re gathered on a single night in January by volunteers to provide a snapshot of homelessness. Experts say this method likely underestimates the unsheltered population, and doesn’t capture the total number of people who fall into homelessness over the course of a year, which could be two or three times higher.