Mobility Data

Mobility data is a category of geospatial dataGeospatial DataGeospatial data encompasses information about the location, shape, and relationships of physical features on Earth. I... derived from mobile devices—smartphones, tablets, connected vehiclesConnected VehiclesConnected Vehicles use wireless communication technologies to exchange data with other vehicles, infrastructure, pede...—that records where devices (and by proxy, their users) are located over time. It is typically collected through GPSGPSThe Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation system operated by the U.S. Space Force that prov... signals captured by mobile apps, cellular network triangulation by telecom operators, or Wi-Fi access point connections, then anonymized and aggregated before distribution.

Raw mobility data consists of device identifier, latitude, longitude, timestamp, and accuracy estimates. Commercial providers process this into analytics-ready products such as foot traffic counts, origin-destination matrices, dwell-time distributions, and visitor home-area estimates. Data quality varies by source: GPSGPSThe Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation system operated by the U.S. Space Force that prov...-based app data offers high spatial precision but limited population coverage, while telecom data covers broader populations at coarser spatial resolutionSpatial ResolutionSpatial resolution defines the size of the smallest feature or ground area that can be distinguished in a spatial dat....

Retailers and real estate analysts use mobility data to measure store traffic, benchmark competitors, and evaluate prospective sites. Transportation agencies analyze commuter flows to plan transit routes and road capacity. Public health authorities used mobility data extensively during the COVID-19 pandemic to monitor population movement and evaluate intervention effectiveness. Urban planners study pedestrian and vehicle flows to design safer, more efficient cities. Mobility data has become a cornerstone of modern location intelligence, offering near-real-time visibility into how populations use physical space at unprecedented geographic scale.