Missouri vs. Kansas: What phone data say about how they’re staying home for COVID-19
How do Kansas and Missouri compare when it comes to staying home during the coronavirus pandemic?
A data company is using mobile devices to analyze human movement in the U.S. since the beginning of February.
SafeGraph — which has companies such as Verizon and Sysco for clients — compiles GPS data to track how people in the U.S. are responding to the pandemic. It’s offering the information to researchers, nonprofit organizations and government officials.
The neighboring states have similar scores in the analysis. That’s despite Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly’s earlier and stricter order compared to Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s more lax guidelines. Cities and counties have separate orders that vary compared to statewide rules.
Nevertheless, they both lag in the bottom half of the country, according to the analysis.
Kansas stay-at-home numbers
• Shelter-in-place index: 16.12%
This figure represents the percentage of people staying home above a baseline on Saturday, the most recent day available. The baseline was recorded in the first week of February.
It means about 16% more Kansas residents are staying home all day compared to early February — when schools and businesses across the state remained open.
Overall, about 39% percent of Kansas residents stayed home, data show.
Missouri stay-at-home numbers
• Shelter-in-place index: 14.92%
Missouri trails Kansas by just over 1% in the number of people who stayed home Saturday.
It’s important to note that these figures vary by date, though Kansas and Missouri continue to score similarly. In fact, Missouri was nearly 2% higher than Kansas the previous Saturday — nearly a week before Parson issued the stay-at-home order.
Overall, about 38% percent of Missourians stayed home on April 4, data show.
U.S. social distancing data
Across the country, more people are staying home each day, according to the data.
The nationwide shelter-in-place index was 18.52% on Saturday, a sign more Americans are listening to social distancing guidelines.
That’s a jump from approximately - 3% on March 9, meaning about 3% more people were out of the house compared to the baseline week.
On that day, the U.S. had 560 confirmed cases and neither the World Health Organization or the CDC had officially declared a pandemic, according to CNN. Now the country has more than 450,000 confirmed cases and more than 16,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Shelter-in-place methodology
SafeGraph is providing the shelter-in-place information dashboard because it’s a primary way governments are combating the coronavirus pandemic. The company says its index is different than other social distancing data sets because it’s not based on total distance traveled.
“Whether to visit a neighbor or to visit the grocery store, whether the distance traveled is 10 miles or 0.1 miles, all ‘away-from-home’ events are classified the same in this dashboard,” according to the company. “We think this is a useful metric because one does not need to travel long distances to undermine social-distancing and enable viral transmission.”
The data is generated by GPS pings from 45 million anonymous smartphones, according to the company. An “event” is classified as each time the device leaves its home. A “home” is defined as the nighttime location over a six-week period.
The company says it doesn’t know or want to know the the precise home address of the devices.
This story was originally published April 9, 2020 at 5:37 PM with the headline "Missouri vs. Kansas: What phone data say about how they’re staying home for COVID-19."