San Francisco residents spend more time at home than any metropolitan county nationwide

By Sri Ravipati

(SAN FRANCISCO) Despite the pandemic taking a turn for the better, San Francisco is slower than any other metropolitan counties in the country to get residents out of the house, according to cellphone data analyzed by the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Chronicle examined geographical data provided by a Harvard-based research organization Opportunity Insights coming from cellphones of Google users who enabled their location.

The data compared residents’ total time away from home in metropolitan counties during the pandemic to a baseline period of January 2020. Data revealed residents visited categories like “retail and recreation,” “grocery and pharmacy,” “parks,” “transit stations” and “workplaces."

San Franciscans had the greatest decrease in time spent away from home compared to any metropolitan county over the past year. The city's residents, on average, spent 26% less time away from home.

As of early April, San Franciscans were spending about 20% less time outside the home on average compared to the U.S. on average spending about 7% less time outside.

San Franciscans made 27% fewer trips to grocery stores, 49% fewer visits to retail and recreation locations, 67% fewer visits to transit stations and 53% fewer visits to work this month.

Nearby, Santa Clara and Alameda counties also consistently showed larger decreases in time away from home than nearly all other metropolitan counties.

Santa Clara County residents spent 23.5% less time outside the home on average in the pandemic’s first year. Alameda County residents spent 21% less time outside the home. Meanwhile, the U.S., on average, decreased by 11%.

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