Image | Google
How Worcester County travel patterns have changed during the pandemic.
May 7, 2020
43% of Worcester County residents have stayed home entirely
Photo | Grant Welker
Worcester's Highland Street is normally packed during rush hour, cutting through Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Becker College, and leading from I-290 to Worcester Regional Airport. But not during the coronavirus pandemic.
By Grant Welker
Limited in how much they can — or want to — head out to work, get groceries or just leave the house during the coronavirus pandemic, 43% of Worcester County residents are staying home entirely, according to an analysis of electronic devices.
That rate, measured Sunday, is among the higher levels nationally and about even with Massachusetts as a whole at 44.6%, according to the analysis by San Francisco data analytics firm SafeGraph. Only New York, New Jersey and Maryland had higher rates at between 45% and 47%.
People have tended to stay home most in urban areas, which have been hit hardest by the pandemic, including the Boston and New York areas. Suffolk County, home to Boston, had 46.5% of people stay home entirely, and Middlesex County, which includes Cambridge and much of Greater Boston's wealthy western suburbs, had 47.1%, according to SafeGraph. In four of New York City's five boroughs, more than half of residents haven't left their home.
Nationally, the average is 38%. People tended to stay home most around early- to mid-April before choosing to head out slightly more often, even before some states loosened restrictions at the end of April, according to SafeGraph's data, which uses anonymized data to figure out where people tend to spend their night and how often they move about.
Google has used similar anonymous device-tracking to show where traffic in Worcester County has fallen the most and least. Traffic to transit stations fell 45% compared to normal levels by April 30, and workplaces by 53%. Traffic to retail and recreation was down 42% and grocery stores and pharmacies by 17%, Google said.
Worcester County residents are also among the most devout in spending most of their time at home. On April 30, residents spent 92% of their day at home, according to a Washington Post analysis of SafeGraph's data.
Massachusetts residents as a whole have stayed home 93% of the time. States range from New Jersey, at 96%, to South Dakota at 80%, the Post's analysis shows.
The national peak for people staying home was April 7. Since then, according to the Post's analysis, much of the country away from urban areas in the Northeast, Midwest and West Coast have begun moving about more often.
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