It remains complicated to pinpoint the best strategy for mitigating the impact of the coronavirus, both on the short-term and long-term well-being of entire populations. Sweden has been something of a black sheep in its decision to opt out of the complete shutdown strategy that’s been followed by most countries. There are both critics and proponents of Sweden’s decisions, as well as cultural and demographic factors that affect how this strategy is playing out in Sweden. But the fact is that, with very minimal restrictions, Sweden has not seen very high exponential growth in new cases.
One explanation as to why Sweden averted uncontrolled growth in the number of COVID19 cases is that enough people have restricted their social activity even without a mandate to do so. We’ve recently added mobility data from various sources, including the Citymapper Mobility Index and Google’s mobility data, to the Macrobond database.
Citymapper Mobility Index
The Citymapper index allows us to observe how many journeys were planned across the largest cities in different countries and compare them to each other. The data indicates that although Sweden did not implement a policy of mobility restrictions, Swedes in Stockholm have traveled less within the city, appearing to self-isolate almost as much as inhabitants of other big cities around the world. With Macrobond’s intuitively structured database, we were able to quickly plot the Citymapper Mobility Index for the biggest cities of some of the hardest-hit countries and compare their decline in mobility to Stockholm’s.
The only city with a higher mobility index than Stockholm since mid-March has been Seoul, South Korea.
We’ve also plotted Google’s mobility data, which includes mobility to grocery stores and pharmacies, parks, residentials, retail and recreation facilities, transit stations and workplaces.
In the first chart we took the average of all component excluding parks as the improved spring weather in many countries has driven people to visit parks more compared to February. Here, we can see a similar pattern as in the Citymapper data, with Sweden’s activity decreasing quite a bit, though less than other countries.
Park visits are up since February in many of these countries, especially where policies have allowed for greater freedom of movement for exercise.
It’s quick to pick up and play with datasets such as this one in our built-in analytics platform, where you can immediately visualize every step of the analytical process. Don’t have Macrobond? Try it for free.
Below is a list of the data that’s been added to the Macrobond database in the past 2 weeks.
Data Additions by Country / Region
- Albania
Business Statistics, Business Activities, Employed Persons
Business Statistics, Enterprises
Business Statistics, Income Statement
Business Statistics, Investments
Business Statistics, Macroeconomic indicators, Mining Operations - Armenia
Enterprise Statistics - Australia
Businesses by Main State, Industry Class & Turnover Size Ranges - Belgium
Bankruptcies by Employee Size Class
Business Investments
Enterprise Statistics - Bulgaria
Number of Enterprises by Size - Cambodia
Budget Implementation - Chile
Increased Coverage of Pension Funds (Social Security Monthly Bulletin) - China
Container Freight Rates
Daily Traffic Congestion Index by City
Increased Coverage of Industrial Production by Product
Inventory/Stock of Motor Vehicles, Total & Various Types
Sales Volume, Proportion & Growth of Motor Vehicles, Total & Various Types - Croatia
Enterprises - Cyprus
Business Register, Enterprises
Business Register, Establishments - Czech Republic
Births & Deaths of Businesses
Businesses, by Principal Activity
Businesses, by Selected Legal Forms
Businesses, by Size of Business - Finland
Enterprises by Industry
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Unemployment Benefits - Germany
Foreign Trade by Countries & Commodities (Monthly) – GP2019 (2-Digit Codes)
Number of Turnover Taxpayers - Georgia
Enterprise Statistics - Hong Kong
Business Closures
Business Insolvencies
Company Registrations
Number of Enterprises
Public Transport Passenger Journeys
Tourist Expenditure by Type - Hungary
Bankruptcies
Enterprises - India
Direct Investment, Inward
Direct Investment, Total
Foreign Investment, Total
Portfolio Investment, Total
Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), Confirmed
Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), Deaths
Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), Recovered - Indonesia
Banking Industry Operations
Credit to Third Parties by Industry
Non-Preforming Loans by Industry - Israel
Business Statistics, Enterprises by Size, Business Births, Number of Enterprises - Italy
Foreign Students - Kenya
Business Statistics, Business Names
Business Statistics, Companies Limited by Guarantee
Business Statistics, Companies Registered - Kosovo
Increased Coverage of Balance of Payments - Kyrgyzstan
Small & Medium Size Enterprises, Enterprises
Small & Medium Size Enterprises, Volume of Gross Added Cost - Latvia
Companies Registered - Macao
Number of Companies Dissolved - Malaysia
Employees Provident Fund
Number of Corporations Registered - Oman
Enterprises - Peru
Enterprises - Portugal
Increased Coverage of Students in Higher Education - Romania
Business Demography
Registered Legal & Natural Persons - Serbia
Registered Legal & Natural Persons, Bankruptcies
Registered Legal & Natural Persons, Closures
Registered Legal & Natural Persons, Companies Registered
Registered Legal & Natural Persons, Founded
Registered Legal & Natural Persons, Liquidations - Singapore
Corporate Insolvencies
Number of Business Entities in Cessation
Number of Live Business Entities
Number of Newly Formed Business Entities - Slovakia
Gross Domestic Product, Per 1 Working/Calendar Day
Increased coverage of Income Approach
Sector Accounts - South Africa
Fixed Rate Bonds
Inflation Linked Bonds - South Korea
Saving & Investment Ratio - Sri Lanka
Agriculture Production Index - Sweden
Balance Sheet of Sparbanken Alingsås AB
Balance Sheet of Sparbanken Lidköping AB
Balance Sheet of Sparbanken Rekarne AB
Balance Sheet of Sparbanken Skåne AB
Balance Sheet of Swedbank Sjuhärad AB
Balance Sheet of Varbergs Sparbank AB
Balance Sheet of Ølands Bank AB
Enterprises by Size
Redundancy Notices by Industry - Thailand
Export Business Expectation Index
Employment by Industry
Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) Sentiment Index
General Government Budget, Surplus/Deficit as Proportion to GDP
Government Fiscal Operations
Loans to Households by Deposit-Taking Institutions
Loans to Households by Other Financial Corporations - Tunisia
Enterprises Deaths - United Arab Emirates
Higher Education - United Kingdom
Citymapper
Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme
Deaths by Single Year of Age
Weekly GFK Consumer Confidence Index - Vietnam
Settlement Activities