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Domestic and international mobility trends in the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic: an analysis of Facebook data

Domestic and international mobility trends in the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic: an analysis of Facebook data
Domestic and international mobility trends in the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic: an analysis of Facebook data
Background: since early March 2020, the COVID-19 epidemic across the United Kingdom has led to a range of social distancing policies, which resulted in changes to mobility across different regions. An understanding of how these policies impacted travel patterns over time and at different spatial scales is important for designing effective strategies, future pandemic planning and in providing broader insights on the population geography of the country. Crowd level data on mobile phone usage can be used as a proxy for population mobility patterns and provide a way of quantifying in near-real time the impact of social distancing measures on changes in mobility.

Methods: here we explore patterns of change in densities, domestic and international flows and co-location of Facebook users in the UK from March 2020 to March 2021.

Results: we find substantial heterogeneities across time and region, with large changes observed compared to pre-pademic patterns. The impacts of periods of lockdown on distances travelled and flow volumes are evident, with each showing variations, but some significant reductions in co-location rates. Clear differences in multiple metrics of mobility are seen in central London compared to the rest of the UK, with each of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland showing significant deviations from England at times. Moreover, the impacts of rapid changes in rules on international travel to and from the UK are seen in substantial fluctuations in traveller volumes by destination.

Conclusions: while questions remain about the representativeness of the Facebook data, previous studies have shown strong correspondence with census-based data and alternative mobility measures, suggesting that findings here are valuable for guiding strategies.
COVID-19, Human mobility, Facebook, Travel patterns
1476-072X
Shepherd, Harry E. R.
debd0334-0087-4704-ae77-48dd38428147
Atherden, Florence S.
231d2529-38c3-415a-a179-b691c46ca081
Chan, Ho Man Theophilus
5bf76c72-ef36-45cb-990e-d6a00d8781f0
Loveridge, Alexandra
7c2ba4b2-905f-4ec5-8daa-3ad3202d62fa
Tatem, Andrew J.
6c6de104-a5f9-46e0-bb93-a1a7c980513e
Shepherd, Harry E. R.
debd0334-0087-4704-ae77-48dd38428147
Atherden, Florence S.
231d2529-38c3-415a-a179-b691c46ca081
Chan, Ho Man Theophilus
5bf76c72-ef36-45cb-990e-d6a00d8781f0
Loveridge, Alexandra
7c2ba4b2-905f-4ec5-8daa-3ad3202d62fa
Tatem, Andrew J.
6c6de104-a5f9-46e0-bb93-a1a7c980513e

Shepherd, Harry E. R., Atherden, Florence S., Chan, Ho Man Theophilus, Loveridge, Alexandra and Tatem, Andrew J. (2021) Domestic and international mobility trends in the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic: an analysis of Facebook data. International Journal of Health Geographics, 20 (1). (doi:10.1186/s12942-021-00299-5).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Background: since early March 2020, the COVID-19 epidemic across the United Kingdom has led to a range of social distancing policies, which resulted in changes to mobility across different regions. An understanding of how these policies impacted travel patterns over time and at different spatial scales is important for designing effective strategies, future pandemic planning and in providing broader insights on the population geography of the country. Crowd level data on mobile phone usage can be used as a proxy for population mobility patterns and provide a way of quantifying in near-real time the impact of social distancing measures on changes in mobility.

Methods: here we explore patterns of change in densities, domestic and international flows and co-location of Facebook users in the UK from March 2020 to March 2021.

Results: we find substantial heterogeneities across time and region, with large changes observed compared to pre-pademic patterns. The impacts of periods of lockdown on distances travelled and flow volumes are evident, with each showing variations, but some significant reductions in co-location rates. Clear differences in multiple metrics of mobility are seen in central London compared to the rest of the UK, with each of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland showing significant deviations from England at times. Moreover, the impacts of rapid changes in rules on international travel to and from the UK are seen in substantial fluctuations in traveller volumes by destination.

Conclusions: while questions remain about the representativeness of the Facebook data, previous studies have shown strong correspondence with census-based data and alternative mobility measures, suggesting that findings here are valuable for guiding strategies.

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s12942-021-00299-5 - Version of Record
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e-pub ahead of print date: 4 December 2021
Keywords: COVID-19, Human mobility, Facebook, Travel patterns

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 456058
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/456058
ISSN: 1476-072X
PURE UUID: 14c4c8fc-6fa6-4e32-832c-c04bc2415ab9
ORCID for Florence S. Atherden: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-6779-2274
ORCID for Ho Man Theophilus Chan: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-6821-4206
ORCID for Andrew J. Tatem: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-7270-941X

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Date deposited: 25 Apr 2022 16:42
Last modified: 13 Jul 2024 02:00

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Contributors

Author: Harry E. R. Shepherd
Author: Alexandra Loveridge
Author: Andrew J. Tatem ORCID iD

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