Can everyday movement show how good life in a city actually is?
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Quality of life is usually measured by survey, years apart. Mobility data records what people actually do, continuously.
Mobility data was tested against four measures of urban life: whether residents walk in their neighbourhood after dark, how often they visit cultural facilities, how much time they spend on recreation, and how they use parks. Mobile internet speed and latency were validated by suburb.
The proof of concept showed that observed movement can measure aspects of quality of life that surveys reach only intermittently.
The four methods were taken into a wider UN-Habitat program measuring quality of life across nine urban domains. The Quality of Life Initiative continues to be rolled out internationally, working towards index compilation for 100 cities through 2025 and 2026.
