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Measured with aggregated cellular data: On New Year's Eve, people in Germany were even more mobile than before the pandemic.
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Peter Kneffel / dpa
Despite the high number of infections and warnings about the Omikron variant, people in Germany were more on the move on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve in 2021 than in the pre-Corona year 2019. This is the result of a special evaluation by the Federal Statistical Office.
On December 24, 2021, nationwide mobility was two percent higher than on Christmas Eve 2019. For comparison: on December 24, 2020, people were 14 percent less mobile. According to the Federal Statistical Office, people were also on the move more on New Year's Eve: Mobility was six percent above the pre-crisis level. On New Year's Eve 2020 it was 16 percent lower than in 2019.
In view of the high number of infections and the Omikron variant, politics and science appealed to citizens before the holidays to celebrate Christmas in their closest circle.
The President of the Robert Koch Institute, Lothar Wieler, had said: "Christmas should not be the spark that ignites the Omicron fire." He said contacts should be limited to the bare minimum and travel should be avoided if possible.
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had said: "It is currently not the time for parties and social gatherings."
Mobility fell again between the years
The increased travel volume compared to 2019 only relates to Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. For example, people in Germany were 13 percent less mobile during the holidays and between the years than in 2019. They were also less on the move on New Year's Eve and at night. And for December as a whole, there is still a decrease of three percent. However, this means that people were on the move significantly more than in 2020: At that time, there was a decrease of 20 percent in December.
Long trips were also more frequent compared to 2020.
At that time, trips of 30 kilometers and more had been made 40 percent fewer - obviously many decided that year to forego longer trips to relatives.
This year the decrease compared to 2019 was only ten percent.
Even with shorter trips, people restricted themselves significantly less this year than in 2020. However, they were overall less on the move than in the year before the pandemic.
Shopping streets busier than in 2020, but less busy than 2019
The Federal Statistical Office also evaluated how busy shopping streets were. A similar pattern can be seen here: People went shopping less than in 2019, but more than in 2020. On the Saturdays of Advent, the number of passers-by between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. on selected shopping streets in 2021 was an average of 37 percent below the level in 2019 In the first pandemic winter of 2020, however, the decline on the Advent Saturdays was still an average of 62 percent - at that time there was initially a "lockdown light" and then a complete closure of the shops.
To count the number of people in city centers, the Federal Statistical Office uses data from the company Hystreet, which uses laser counters to measure pedestrian flows in German city centers.
In order to measure people's travel behavior, the office uses aggregated and anonymized cell phone data.
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