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Demographic statistics about populations can’t explain everything about why our communities are the way they are: What motivates someone to move to a new city, or to start a family or not, differs from one person to the next. But they’re helpful for spotting trends and exploring larger economic forces.

I recently talked with Tina Daley, the head of demographic research for the state’s Department of Finance, about the trends she’s keeping an eye on and what we can learn from them.

She said her office had been looking at migration and housing affordability. One data point that jumped out was which cities had the biggest shares of young people.

Here are the top cities for residents ages 25 to 34, according to 2017 data from the American Community Survey and compiled by Ms. Daley’s team:

1. Mountain View, with 24.4 percent of its 81,443 residents ages 25 to 34.

2. San Francisco, with 23.5 percent of its 884,363 residents

3. Sunnyvale, with 22.5 percent of its 153,656 residents

4. Costa Mesa, with 21 percent of its 113,821 residents

5. Santa Clara, with 20.7 percent of its 127,131 residents

Notice a trend?

They’re all on or near the coast. And with the exception of Costa Mesa, which is just inland from Newport Beach, they’re all in the Bay Area, where Ms. Daley said young, highly educated workers were moving, often from other high-cost metro areas like New York.

“The people who can afford it are still moving there,” she said.

That might not surprise anyone who’s ever heard about wealthy millennials making San Francisco their playground.

But what Ms. Daley found more interesting was how different the list was when she looked at cities with the biggest shares of residents under 40. Here’s that ranking:

1. Perris, with 69.9 percent of its 77,895 residents

2. Madera, with 68 percent of its 65,506 residents

3. Lake Elsinore, with 67.6 percent of its 66,412 residents

4. Lynwood, with 66.1 percent of its 71,115 residents

5. Davis, with 65.8 percent of its 68,985 residents

These are all inland communities with less expensive housing. Why the contrast? Ms. Daley said it’s because “under 40,” includes children. This, she said, signals that families are seeking out places where they can afford to live.

Right now, that’s translating into long commutes for parents who may live in faraway inland suburbs but work in the expensive coastal cities, though Ms. Daley noted things like telecommuting are on the rise.

“People are becoming more flexible,” she said.

And while she didn’t want to speculate about how those kinds of changes will shape where Californians work and live in the future, she said it was an exciting challenge.

“There are these new issues,” she said. “So how do we get the data to figure out what’s going on?”

Do you have questions about California’s demographics? Email us at [email protected].

Here’s what else we’re following

(We often link to sites that limit access for nonsubscribers. We appreciate your reading Times stories, but we’d also encourage you to support local news if you can.)

• On her 79th birthday, Representative Nancy Pelosi spent the day trying to move the national political conversation away from impeachment and toward health care after President Trump moved to strike down the Affordable Care Act. [The New York Times]

• And here’s how millions of people would be affected if the health care law is struck down. [The New York Times]

• Who’s buying up California’s scarce water? It’s Saudi Arabia. But it’s not getting it via pipelines or tankers. It’s being used to grow water-intensive alfalfa, which is being shipped overseas. The business illustrates the complicated system that governs California’s water rights. [The Guardian]

• A judge ruled Kathryn Steinle’s family can’t sue the City of San Francisco for freeing the man who would go on to kill her, who was undocumented, without first telling federal immigration authorities. [The New York Times]

• The Alameda County district attorney asked Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s office to investigate after Fremont police officers shot a teenage girl. She said she wanted to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. Then Mr. Becerra’s office quietly closed its investigation, also saying it also wanted to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. [The East Bay Times]

• Larry Baer, the chief executive of the San Francisco Giants, has been suspended after a video emerged of him in a public altercation with his wife, in which she screams and falls out of a chair. [The New York Times]

More California Stories

• State Senator Scott Wiener adjourned in memory of Jake Phelps, the longtime editor of Thrasher, skateboarding’s most revered magazine, which is based in San Francisco. [California State Senate]

• Who’s got the receipts? It may not be Californians if lawmakers approve a proposal to scrap long, wasteful paper ones in favor of emailed receipts. [CALMatters]

• Pliny the Younger, the Russian River Brewing Company’s triple I.P.A. that is famously coveted by hopheads the world over, pumped $4.2 million into the Sonoma County economy, local business officials said. [The Press-Democrat]

• L.A. Taco released its guide to eating in Los Angeles, the Rogue 99. Don’t browse on an empty stomach, unless you have your car keys close by. [L.A. Taco]

And Finally …

She once took a sledgehammer to a toilet wrapped in chains on the steps of the Capitol to protest the fact that women had pay-to-use toilets in public buildings when men’s urinals were free.

And that’s not even the coolest thing about March Fong Eu.

She was a trailblazing lawmaker whose election in 1966 made her one of the first two women of color to serve in the State Legislature. When she was later elected California secretary of state, she was the first woman in that role — not to mention the first person of Chinese ancestry elected to statewide office.

Over the course of her long career in public service, she bulked up the state’s archives, expanded voter registration and championed women in politics so that men wouldn’t be the only ones making decisions about things like reproductive health and equal pay.

“Men will listen only if we speak clearly,” she said in a 1973 talk, according to a digital exhibit compiled by the secretary of state’s office.

This week, a little more than a year after her death at age 95, she became the first Asian-American woman (and almost the first woman) to have a state building named after her — the March Fong Eu Secretary of State building, at 11th and O Streets, in Sacramento.

“For years, March Fong Eu sought to unify the operations of the secretary of state’s office under one roof,” Secretary of State Alex Padilla said in a news release. “It is only fitting that the office complex March Fong Eu fought so hard to build bears her name.”

California Today goes live at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: [email protected].

Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, went to school at U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter, @jillcowan.

California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.

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