Analysis: Livingston Gets An "A" For Social Distancing
March 26, 2020
According to data from an analytics firm, Livingston County residents are doing a pretty good job when it comes to social distancing.
Unacast has created a Social Distancing Scoreboard using location data and then ranked each of Michigan’s 83 counties based on the relative reduction in the average distance traveled. Using the change in distance traveled from before the COVID-19 outbreak, they determined a "Social Distancing" score for each county, which was then juxtaposed with the number of reported cases to show correlation with changes in behavior over time.
According to their calculations, as of Sunday, before Gov. Whitmer’s shelter-in-place order was issued, Michiganders were already doing fairly well, netting an “A” grade based on an average 42% reduction in the average distance traveled. Livingston County came in fourth, with an average 46% change. Washtenaw County was best in southeast Michigan at 56%, followed by Ingham County at 54% and then Oakland County with 53%. Lapeer rounded out the top five with 44%.
The best in the state was Luce County in the Upper Peninsula which had a 78% reduction. The worst county was Baraga, also in the UP, with just a 12% reduction.