The Long-Term Impact of Covid-19 on Human Mobility in Latin America: Assessing Differences across Population Groups

Carmen Cabrera-Arnau, University of Liverpool
Francisco Rowe, University of Liverpool
Miguel González-Leonardo, El Colegio de México, A.C. Centro de Estudios demograficos, Urbanos Y Ambientales
Andrea Nasuto, Department of Geography, University of Liverpool
Ruth Nevile, University of Liverpool

COVID-19 triggered a reduction in the frequency and extent of people's daily movement. Existing evidence suggests that while the impact of the pandemic on mobility was widespread, it was unequally felt across socioeconomic groups in the early stages of the pandemic. Here, we find that the most deprived locations have experienced a more accelerated recovery towards pre-pandemic levels of mobility in the long term. Furthermore, the socioeconomic disparities in mobility patterns triggered by the first outbreak of COVID-19 have persisted. These findings are based on a dataset comprising 213 million aggregated flow observations, collected from Meta-Facebook users in Latin American countries who opted to share their location data. To ensure an inclusive representation across all the spatial units of analysis, we develop a methodology to estimate missing movement data. Our research highlights the importance of timely mobility data with high spatiotemporal resolution for understanding the long-term effects of the pandemic and for informing equitable policy responses that address societal challenges in urban areas.

Keywords: Big data, Data and Methods, Population, Shocks and Pandemics, Internal Migration and Urbanization

See extended abstract.