People are increasingly leaving home, but not for work, according to cellphone data; county-level data available

Washington Post map; click on the image to enlarge it. For the interactive version, with county data, click here.

More and more people are venturing out of the house, but not to go to work, according to anonymized cellphone data aggregated by SafeGraph and Google.

According to the Google data, "the percentage of phones (and presumably, their owners) in workplaces dropped steeply in mid-March and has barely risen. More than 30 million people have filed for unemployment benefits in the past six weeks," Kevin Schaul, Brittany Mayes and Bonnie Berkowitz report for The Washington Post. "SafeGraph’s more granular data shows people are again hitting general merchandise stores such as Walmart and Target at near-March levels. Some are satisfying fast-food cravings at restaurants with counter service."

A similar project, by the University of Maryland, presents cell-phone mobility and other data in bar graphs by date. The site has data going back to Jan. 1, and the "Counties" option can be selected to create bar graphs for any county.

Just because people are leaving their homes more, it doesn't necessarily mean they've stopped social distancing, the Post notes. Americans may simply be enjoying the warmer weather outdoors more, especially since the data shows that parks are an increasingly popular destination.

"In general, people in rural areas are away more than people in urban and suburban areas, in large part because stores, services and essential workplaces are much farther away and delivery services are rare or nonexistent. But the trend lines are very similar across all types of places," the Post reports. "The data clearly shows that when Americans were told it was time to stay home, most people did. It also indicates that they are deciding for themselves when to go back out."