STATS RELEASED FROM the CSO show how the week ending 24 December was the busiest for people moving 10km or more from their homes.

The CSO said the Staying Local Indicator (SLI) showed the lowest percentage of the population (51.7%) staying within 10km of their home each day for the week ending 24 December 2020.

One week later,  the percentage of people staying local had increased, with almost 58% of the population estimated to have stayed within 10km of home each day.

The indicator peaked during the first wave of the pandemic, when 76.7% of the population were estimated to have stayed local each day during the week ending 15 April 2020.

Restrictions were loosened at the start of December which allowed restaurants, pubs, hairdressers, gyms and cinemas, to name but a few, to reopen. 

From 18 December, the restrictions on household visits were lifted from a ban and allowed two households to visit a third. Inter-county travel was also be permitted from this date.

During the second wave of the pandemic, the indicator peaked during the week ending 4 November, when 62.9% of the population were estimated to have stayed local each day.

In January and February 2020, before the pandemic arrived, the CSO’s indicator found that  56.5% of the population were estimated to have stayed local each day

“The impact of Government restrictions on travel are clearly visible at national and county levels. Marked rises and falls in the SLI visibly reflect the imposition and relaxation of movement restriction policies at key dates throughout the year.”

Dunne said by looking at county variations you could see that the 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”.

He added: “For example, Dublin, with a high level of urbanisation, consistently shows the highest percentage of persons staying local, while Roscommon and Mayo, with low levels of urbanisation, have the lowest percentage of persons staying within 10km of home. 

Dublin showed the highest percentage of persons staying local of any county for the week ending 31 December, at 66%. This compares to the more rural counties such as Galway (48.7%), Mayo (48.2%), and Sligo (49.8%) with less than half the county population staying within 10km of their usual place of overnight residence.