FLEEING THE CITY:  New Yorkers Temporarily Escaping COVID-19Smartphone location data have found

FLEEING THE CITY:  New Yorkers Temporarily Escaping COVID-19

Smartphone location data have found that hundreds of thousands of New York City residents left the city as it became the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. Approximately five percent of the city population has left since the crisis began, roughly around 420,000 people. 

New Yorkers primarily fled to Long Island, Upstate, or counties in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. A large number went further, most noticeably to South Florida. Not surprisingly, it was the city’s wealthiest neighborhoods that saw the largest decrease in residential population.

This map created by geospatial analysis company Descartes Labs for the New York Times, depicts the share of people who lived in New York City over a two-week period in February 2020 but who were not living there on May 1, 2020.