Mobility fell significantly on Christmas and New Year’s Eve
Christmas visit to your grandparents and New Year’s Eve with friends? The measures to contain the corona pandemic have thwarted plans for many people. As the Federal Statistical Office announced on Thursday, people’s mobility has changed significantly compared to previous years. The special evaluation of experimental mobility data shows that mobility on Christmas days is nationwide on average by 14.6 percent compared to the respective day of the previous year be. The decrease was on Christmas Day with a minus of 14.3 percent and on Christmas Day with minus 18.5 percent stronger than on Christmas Eve with minus 11.1 percent.
The number of longer trips fell particularly sharply on the two Christmas holidays: Trips with a distance of 50 to less than 100 kilometers fell by a good third on December 25th and 26th, trips with a distance of 100 kilometers or more even by around half. This suggests that many people, in particular, have refrained from visiting family members who live further away and vacationing over longer distances, it said.
There were regional differences. Mobility declined the most in Berlin (minus 20 percent), Bavaria (minus 18 percent) and North Rhine-Westphalia (minus 17 percent). In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Brandenburg the decline was particularly low at minus seven and minus one percent, respectively.
Alcohol, fireworks and assembly bans at the usual New Year’s Eve meeting points, especially in cities, were also reflected in the mobility data at the turn of the year. Between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. on New Year’s Eve, mobility decreased by 57 percent. Between midnight and 1.00 a.m., the decline was somewhat smaller than in the adjacent night hours, but still significantly below the previous year’s level.
When comparing the ten largest cities, there was little movement, especially in Stuttgart and Munich: With an average of minus 80 percent and minus 83 percent, the decline in mobility was even more pronounced than in the other large cities. This was probably due to the curfews in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria on New Year’s Eve, it said.
