More Kilkenny residents staying within 10km of homes: report
More people in Kilkenny are taking heed of advice and obeying Covid-19 travel restrictions as the amount of people travelling 10km from their homes has levelled off, new data suggests.
The Staying Local Indicator (SLI), issued by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) reveals 58.2% of Kilkenny residents did not travel further than 10km at any point during the latest recorded week.
This was a slight decrease from the 58.5% of residents not traveling more than 10km the previous week, but a vast improvement on the 57% and 56% of the previous weeks.
The CSO data is gathered in conjunction with Ireland’s mobile phone operators. The State statistics body says the phones are not tracked and stresses it does not have access to personal data or individuals’ movements.
The message seems to be getting across in other parts of the country. Last week an estimated 65.1% of the population stayed within 10k of home during the week ending 19 March, 2021, down half a percentage points on the previous, but still well ahead of a low of 63.8% at the start of the month.
Dublin continues to be the county with the highest percentage of the population staying local (80.1%), while neighbouring Mayo and Roscommon have returned to the bottom of the list, with just 50% managing to not travel beyond 10km.
A CSO spokesperson said: “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.
“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.”
