As the fall weather moves in, Social Explorer is looking westward to enjoy a little more of those California beaches.  Inspired by several songs about this great state, we can use Social Explorer to sing with data.

After humming along with Katy Perry’s “California Gurls” and The Beach Boys 1960s hit “California Girls” (remade by David Lee Roth in 1985), what is the state of West Coast women?

With Social Explorer, users can quickly compare maps and reports across the decades.  Looking at the female population of California for each of the three songs–Census years 1960 and 1980 and the newly released 2009 American Community Survey–we see how women are distributed around the state.

Social Explorer’s report tools enable a closer look at trends in the female population, including age, race and more.  For example, the female population in California changed from 50.1% during the Beach Boys songs to 50.7% while David Lee Roth was rocking to 49.9% as Katy Perry sang.

So, why have California women inspired such songwriting?  Are they truly “undeniable, fine, fresh and fierce?”  Are they “the cutest girls in the world?” According to the data, throughout this period, California females were a bit rarer than US women overall in numbers, making them unique, in terms of numbers.

Click the above map or the reports link for more California data dreamin.