Mapping global variation in human mobility

Moritz U. G. Kraemer (), Adam Sadilek, Qian Zhang, Nahema A. Marchal, Gaurav Tuli, Emily L. Cohn, Yulin Hswen, T. Alex Perkins, David L. Smith, Robert C. Reiner () and John S. Brownstein ()
Additional contact information
Moritz U. G. Kraemer: Harvard University
Adam Sadilek: Google Inc.
Qian Zhang: University of Washington
Nahema A. Marchal: University of Oxford
Gaurav Tuli: Boston Children’s Hospital
Emily L. Cohn: Boston Children’s Hospital
Yulin Hswen: Boston Children’s Hospital
T. Alex Perkins: University of Notre Dame
David L. Smith: University of Washington
Robert C. Reiner: University of Washington
John S. Brownstein: Harvard University

Nature Human Behaviour, 2020, vol. 4, issue 8, 800-810

Abstract: Abstract The geographic variation of human movement is largely unknown, mainly due to a lack of accurate and scalable data. Here we describe global human mobility patterns, aggregated from over 300 million smartphone users. The data cover nearly all countries and 65% of Earth’s populated surface, including cross-border movements and international migration. This scale and coverage enable us to develop a globally comprehensive human movement typology. We quantify how human movement patterns vary across sociodemographic and environmental contexts and present international movement patterns across national borders. Fitting statistical models, we validate our data and find that human movement laws apply at 10 times shorter distances and movement declines 40% more rapidly in low-income settings. These results and data are made available to further understanding of the role of human movement in response to rapid demographic, economic and environmental changes.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1038/s41562-020-0875-0

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