Apple has significantly expanded the data available through its Mobility Trends Reports tool using information collected from Apple Maps.
Apple’s Mobility Trends Reports are designed to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 by providing insights to local governments and health authorities. However, anyone can use the tool to search by country, region, or city to see specifics trends for that area.
When Apple first released the tool in April, it included data from major cities, as well as 63 countries and regions. Asymco’s Horace Dediu (via 9to5Mac), recently noted that Apple has added approximately 580 new sub-regions to its database.
Dedio says the data now includes all U.S. states and 530 other providences.
This data is generated by counting the number of requests made to Apple Maps for directions in select countries/regions, sub-regions, and cities. Data that is sent from users’ devices to the Maps service is associated with random, rotating identifiers so Apple doesn’t have a profile of users’ movements and searches. The availability of data in a particular country/region, sub-region, or city is based on a number of factors, including minimum thresholds for direction requests per day.
Using the tool, users can search to monitor how routing requests have shifted since January 13, 2020, leading up to the current date. A complete downloadable set is also available that includes daily changes in requests for directions by transportation type for all available countries and cities.