By Cate McCurry, PA
More people in every county are continuing to travel further than 10km from their home, new statistics show.
Mayo and Roscommon are among the counties with the lowest percentage of people staying within 10km of home in the last week of February.
The counties with the lowest number of people staying local often have low levels of urbanisation and access to services.
Data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that there continues to be a relaxation in adherence to Covid-19 travel restrictions.
An estimated 64.1% of the population stayed local (within 10k of home) during the week ending 25 February 2021 according to the Staying Local Indicator (SLI), a seven-day rolling averagehttps://t.co/RQd6GpGBpE #CSOIreland #Ireland #COVIDIreland #Health #SocialImpact pic.twitter.com/44X2tGW6NK
— Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) March 8, 2021
The fifth Staying Local Indicator (SLI) uses anonymised mobile phone activity records to measure the public’s movements across seven days.
It found that some 64 per cent of the population stayed local – within 10k of home – during the week ending February 25th.
Figures from the CSO show that all counties showed SLI decreases in the last two weeks of February, ranging from 1.9 percentage points in Sligo, to 0.2 percentage points in Offaly, indicating some relaxation of mobility behaviour.
It found that Dublin continues to be the county with the highest percentage of the population staying local at 77.4 per cent, which reflects its urbanised nature and access to services compared with other counties.
A spokesman for the CSO said: “Propensity to stay within 10km of residence tends to differ by county, as movement is impacted by local circumstances and conditions, such as access to services and levels of urbanisation.
“For example, Dublin, with a high level of urbanisation, consistently shows the highest percentage of persons staying local, while Mayo and Roscommon, with low levels of urbanisation, are among the counties with the lowest percentage of persons staying within 10km of home.”
