New research from the University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts analyzed U.S. Census and mobile phone data to understand how people interact in their communities.
The so-called “visitor census” reviewed anonymous mobile phone location data from 3.58 million people in seven major U.S. cities — Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, Seattle, Denver and the Twin Cities — to identify likely home areas and track visits to other neighborhoods. When combined with U.S. Census data, the new dataset provides a more dynamic view of the social and economic interactions in neighborhoods and cities.
Credit: University of Minnesota.
The study, published in Scientific Data, found:
- In the Twin Cities, the visitor census reveals clear contrasts between residents and visitors in income, education and racial makeup. For example, affluent areas may attract visitors with lower incomes, while downtown tends to see daytime visitors who are wealthier than local residents. These patterns show how neighborhoods often serve different roles during the day than they do at night.
- The dataset shows how neighborhood makeup can shift over time — some predominantly white, high-income areas see more diverse visitors during work or recreation hours, while some lower-income neighborhoods draw visitors with higher education or income levels due to local attractions or services.
- Unlike the traditional census, which is collected only every five or 10 years and offers a static snapshot of where people live, mobile phone data shows how neighborhoods change hour by hour.
“Traditional census data tells us where people live, but not where they go,” said Di Zhu, an assistant professor in the College of Liberal Arts. “That’s like knowing everyone’s mailing address but nothing about their daily lives. By capturing who visits where — and what social and economic backgrounds they bring — we’re giving neighborhoods a fuller, more dynamic identity that reflects how cities actually function.”
Future research will expand the visitor census dataset to include more cities and time periods, making it an even more powerful tool for understanding urban life. The team aims to integrate this resource into future research on socioeconomic forecasting, neighborhood change and human-environment dynamics.
This study was supported by the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, the Data Science Initiatives, and the Minnesota Population Center. University of Minnesota collaborators include Meicheng Xiong and David Van Riper.
About the College of Liberal Arts
For more than 150 years, the College of Liberal Arts has played a central and enduring role in shaping lives, for the good of Minnesota and the world. CLA is the largest college in the University of Minnesota system with nearly 500 world-class faculty instructing more than 12,000 undergraduate and 1,400 graduate students. CLA is home to 31 academic departments and more than 20 interdisciplinary research centers in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Learn more at cla.umn.edu.
- Categories:
- Social Sciences
- Communication
- Information
