Due to changes in the collection and availability of data on COVID-19, this website will no longer be updated. The webpage will no longer be available as of 11 May 2023. On-going, reliable sources of data for COVID-19 are available via the COVID-19 dashboard and the UKHSA
GLA Covid-19 Mobility Report
Since March 2020, London has seen many different levels of restrictions - including three separate lockdowns and many other tiers/levels of restrictions, as well as easing of restrictions and even measures to actively encourage people to go to work, their high streets and local restaurants. This reports gathers data from a number of sources, including google, apple, citymapper, purple wifi and opentable to assess the extent to which these levels of restrictions have translated to a reductions in Londoners' movements.
The data behind the charts below come from different sources. None of these data represent a direct measure of how well people are adhering to the lockdown rules - nor do they provide an exhaustive data set. Rather, they are measures of different aspects of mobility, which together, offer an overall impression of how people Londoners are moving around the capital. The information is broken down by use of public transport, pedestrian activity, retail and leisure, and homeworking.
Public Transport
For the transport measures, we have included data from google, Apple, CityMapper and Transport for London. They measure different aspects of public transport usage - depending on the data source. Each of the lines in the chart below represents a percentage of a pre-pandemic baseline.
activity Source Latest Baseline Min value in Lockdown 1 Min value in Lockdown 2 Min value in Lockdown 3 Citymapper Citymapper mobility index 2021-09-05 Compares trips planned and trips taken within its app to a baseline of the four weeks from 6 Jan 2020 7.9% 28% 19% Google Google Mobility Report 2022-10-15 Location data shared by users of Android smartphones, compared time and duration of visits to locations to the median values on the same day of the week in the five weeks from 3 Jan 2020 20.4% 40% 27% TfL Bus Transport for London 2022-10-30 Bus journey ‘taps' on the TfL network compared to same day of the week in four weeks starting 13 Jan 2020 - 34% 24% TfL Tube Transport for London 2022-10-30 Tube journey ‘taps' on the TfL network compared to same day of the week in four weeks starting 13 Jan 2020 - 30% 21% Pedestrian activity
With the data we currently have it's harder to estimate pedestrian activity and high street busyness. A few indicators can give us information on how people are making trips out of the house:
activity Source Latest Baseline Min value in Lockdown 1 Min value in Lockdown 2 Min value in Lockdown 3 Walking Apple Mobility Index 2021-11-09 estimates the frequency of trips made on foot compared to baselie of 13 Jan '20 22% 47% 36% Parks Google Mobility Report 2022-10-15 Frequency of trips to parks. Changes in the weather mean this varies a lot. Compared to baseline of 5 weeks from 3 Jan '20 30% 55% 41% Retail & Rec Google Mobility Report 2022-10-15 Estimates frequency of trips to shops/leisure locations. Compared to baseline of 5 weeks from 3 Jan '20 30% 55% 41% Retail and recreation
In this section, we focus on estimated footfall to shops, restaurants, cafes, shopping centres and so on.
activity Source Latest Baseline Min value in Lockdown 1 Min value in Lockdown 2 Min value in Lockdown 3 Grocery/pharmacy Google Mobility Report 2022-10-15 Estimates frequency of trips to grovery shops and pharmacies. Compared to baseline of 5 weeks from 3 Jan '20 32% 55.00% 45.000% Retail/rec Google Mobility Report 2022-10-15 Estimates frequency of trips to shops/leisure locations. Compared to baseline of 5 weeks from 3 Jan '20 32% 55.00% 45.000% Restaurants OpenTable State of the Industry 2022-02-19 London restaurant bookings made through OpenTable 0% 0.17% 0.024% Home Working
The Google Mobility Report estimates changes in how many people are staying at home and going to places of work compared to normal. It's difficult to translate this into exact percentages of the population, but changes back towards ‘normal' can be seen to start before any lockdown restrictions were lifted. This value gives a seven day rolling (mean) average to avoid it being distorted by weekends and bank holidays.
name Source Latest Baseline Min/max value in Lockdown 1 Min/max value in Lockdown 2 Min/max value in Lockdown 3 Residential Google Mobility Report 2022-10-15 Estimates changes in how many people are staying at home for work. Compared to baseline of 5 weeks from 3 Jan '20 131% 119% 125% Workplaces Google Mobility Report 2022-10-15 Estimates changes in how many people are going to places of work. Compared to baseline of 5 weeks from 3 Jan '20 24% 54% 40% Restriction Date end_date Average Citymapper Average homeworking Work from home advised 17 Mar '20 21 Mar '20 57% 118% Schools, pubs closed 21 Mar '20 24 Mar '20 34% 119% UK enters first lockdown 24 Mar '20 10 May '20 10% 130% Some workers encouraged to return to work 10 May '20 01 Jun '20 15% 125% Schools open, small groups outside 01 Jun '20 15 Jun '20 19% 122% Non-essential businesses re-open 15 Jun '20 04 Jul '20 24% 120% Hospitality reopens 04 Jul '20 03 Aug '20 34% 115% Eat out to help out scheme begins 03 Aug '20 08 Sep '20 44% 113% Rule of 6 08 Sep '20 24 Sep '20 53% 111% 10pm Curfew 24 Sep '20 15 Oct '20 51% 112% Tier 2 (High alert) 15 Oct '20 05 Nov '20 49% 113% Second Lockdown 05 Nov '20 02 Dec '20 31% 118% Tier 2 (High alert) 02 Dec '20 19 Dec '20 45% 115% Tier 4 (Stay at home advised) 19 Dec '20 05 Jan '21 22% 124% Third Lockdown 05 Jan '21 08 Mar '21 22% 122% Roadmap 1 08 Mar '21 29 Mar '21 29% 118% Roadmap 2 29 Mar '21 12 Apr '21 36% 117% Roadmap 3 12 Apr '21 17 May '21 51% 113% Roadmap out of lockdown: Step 3 17 May '21 19 Jul '21 65% 109% Roadmap out of lockdown: Step 4 19 Jul '21 07 Nov '22 68% 107%