Source: https://info.burbio.com/press/
As the US reopening accelerates post-lockdowns, it is less populated states and counties that are leading the way in opening up in-person community life for residents, according to Burbio.com’s Community Activity Index, which measures in-person community life across over 150,000 community groups in all 50 states.
Burbio’s index, which is updated daily based on real-time activity, measures community life across five areas in every county in the US: Chambers of Commerce, government, libraries, arts and recreation, and civic and volunteer organization, scoring each county based on the level of activity and then population weighting the counties to get indices at the state and national level.
Nationally, the index sits at 20.8, having been at zero in late May, up from 15.9 seven days ago. The states with the highest indexes are South Dakota (50.4), Rhode Island (47.1), Idaho (45.7) Utah (41.2), and Oregon (38.3) The lowest are Kentucky (6.1), Maryland (7.7) Montana (8.3), Hawaii (8.4) and New York (8.9). The District of Columbia sits at zero.
The average index of the ten lowest population states is 24.2 while the average of the ten largest population states is 18.7. The “small versus big” trend can be seen at the county level, as well, with counties over 1MM in population having an average index of only 16.5, counties from 500,000 to 1MM averaging 19.9 and those with populations between 250,000 and 500,000 averaging 26.2.
Nationally, Chambers of Commerce have the highest activity levels of all the sub-groups, along with government activities, driven by things like street fairs, markets, and youth activities. Libraries are the lowest “open” category; only a handful across the country having in person events as most libraries introduced “virtual” programming during the lockdown and are not reopening as quickly.
“We expect the trend of smaller states and counties being more ‘open’ to continue over the course of the summer as these tend to be areas where the COVID-19 had less impact,” said Burbio co-founder Julie Roche. “That said, larger metro areas are starting to open up so we should see the gap narrow.”
To learn more about the data behind this article and what Burbio has to offer, visit https://cai.burbio.com/school-opening-tracker/.
Sign up to receive our stories in your inbox.
Data is changing the speed of business. Investors, Corporations, and Governments are buying new, differentiated data to gain visibility make better decisions. Don't fall behind. Let us help.
Sign up to receive our stories in your inbox.
Data is changing the speed of business. Investors, Corporations, and Governments are buying new, differentiated data to gain visibility make better decisions. Don't fall behind. Let us help.
