Analytics, Covid-19, Society, Telecomunications

Telia compared the mobility of people in Estonia, Finland and Sweden during the two major periods of the spread of the coronavirus, that is in the beginning of this year in February, March and April, and in November.

During the first coronavirus wave, Estonia experienced the largest decrease in mobility compared to Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Immediately after the declaration of the emergency situation in March, mobility decreased by more than 31 percent compared to the beginning of February and remained on a declining trend until the penultimate week of April. A similar pattern was seen in Finland.

Comparing the mobility of Estonia and Finland during the current wave of the coronavirus, it can be seen that the mobility in Estonia remained more or less stable until the 46th week, that is November 9-15, followed by a sharper decline in week 47, that is November 16-22. In Finland, however, the slowdown in mobility took place four weeks earlier, starting mid-October.

The data also show that the Black Friday sales campaigns held on the last Friday of November were unable to turn the mobility of the Estonian population towards an increase again. In Denmark, on the other hand, this is exactly what happened.

In the last two weeks of November and the first week of December, there was already a larger decrease in the mobility of Estonian people, and compared to 

February, people moved 10-14% less in the 46th, 47th and 48th weeks.

Comparing the first week of December and the last week of November, the mobility of people has decreased in all Estonian counties except Hiiumaa. Mobility decreased the most in Saaremaa and East-Viru County by 5%, while activity in Hiiumaa increased slightly by 2%.

"Based on the general picture of Estonian people's movement patterns, it can be said that even without direct travel restrictions, people prefer to stay more at home or around their place of residence lately, but these figures are not comparable to the first wave of the virus. The only exception is Sweden, where the mobility of people from November 9 to 15 has fallen by 20% compared to February and reached the same level as the first wave. At the same time, Sweden was one of the countries with the most flexible approach at the time of the spring restrictions, which was also reflected in people's mobility," Kertu Kuusik, head of mobility data at Telia Estonia, said.

Telia's mobility analysis uses the Telia Crowd Insights platform, which allows the analysis of general grouped movement patterns, as well as changes in movement habits, based on anonymous aggregate data from the mobile network. The location or movement patterns of any particular person are neither visible nor identifiable, as only anonymized and grouped aggregate data have been used and the compliance of the solution with the requirements of the personal data protection laws has been ensured.

The Telia Crowd Insights platform is also used in all Scandinavian countries where Telia Company operates.