CSO figures indicate more people are moving beyond 10km of home

Members of the Gardai at a checkpoint in Dublin. Gareth Chaney/Collins

The number of people staying close to home has fallen slightly, according to the latest data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The CSO has published the eighth Staying Local Indicator (SLI) and it found that in the week ending March 19, around 65.1% of the population stayed local.

The previous week, the CSO found that 65.7% of people stayed local - or within 10km of their home.

Mayo (with 49.9% of people staying local), Roscommon (50%) and Carlow (51.4%) had the lowest number of people staying local, while Dublin (80.2%) had the highest.

The CSO said that this trend reflects local circumstances such as access to services and levels of urbanisation.

“Dublin, with a high level of urbanisation, consistently shows the highest percentage of persons staying local, while Mayo and Roscommon, with relatively lower levels of urbanisation, are among the counties with the lowest percentage of persons staying within 10km of home,” said a statement.

An estimated 65.1% of the population stayed local (within 10km of home) during the week ending 19 March 2021 according to the Staying Local Indicator (SLI), a seven-day rolling averagehttps://t.co/KyV47b9Oom #CSOIreland #Ireland #COVIDIreland #Health #SocialImpact pic.twitter.com/HKTomzhS1K

— Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) March 29, 2021

 

The majority of counties (22) showed SLI decreases, indicating that more people moved beyond 10km of home between March 12 and March 19.

Kerry and Wexford saw the biggest SLI decreases (-1.7%) followed by Cavan (-1.5%) and Roscommon (-1.2%) Cork had an SLI decrease of -1%.

Only four counties – Dublin, Kildare, Offaly and Carlow – showed SLI increases, which indicates that more people stayed local.

While not an exact measure, the SLI is used by the CSO as a general indication of what percentage of the population is staying local.

The data is based on statistical analysis of anonymised, aggregated, mobile phone activity records.

Data from Three Ireland is collated from anonymised data sets at a macro scale, aggregated at Electoral Division and provided to the Department of Health.

Only aggregated statistical data is provided to the Department of Health. No personal data is provided.

Meanwhile, Gardaí said last week that the force has issued 12,336 fines for non-essential travel.

The fine stands at €100.

As of last Friday, gardaí have issued around 16,834 fines for alleged Covid-19 breaches.