Page 65 - Revista del Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo del INEI - Economía, Sociedad y Estadística N° 9

FIGURE 3: MOBILITY TREND IN SPAIN

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Country Total. Percentage of the population that leaves the area.
30
25

20
15

10
5

0

Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE)

It is worth noting that this project has several limitations, impact on NSOs’ regular operations. During this
as INE mentions. Firstly, when GPS is not used, a mobile pandemic, it was vital to inform users in a timely fashion
phone’s location cannot be precisely determined. There about possible delays in the release of statistics, as well
will always be some margin of error of some tens of as any methodological changes in statistical operations.
meters and this margin of error will be greater in rural
areas, where there is less coverage. This also implies In the midst of the pandemic, there is a significant
that due to these fluctuations, if all observations were amount of fake news that are spread mainly in social
to remain fixed, there would be some that would appear media. NSO’s have an important role countering
to have moved, though in reality this would be false. misinformation, given that they are the official
Consequently, INE recommends careful interpretation of statistical producers. During this crisis, many NSO’s have
the movements between two surrounding areas. Third, positioned themselves as solid and reliable sources of
when the number of observations is lower than 10 or information. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to
15 (defined by each provider), these are not accounted release COVID-19 related statistics in a more timely and
for in the movements provided by INE. This is due to regular manner, and to maintain good communication
privacy and statistical secret matters. Fourth, sudden with users.
and short-lived movements are not recorded. Finally,
movements occurring outside the recording hours Many NSO’s have changed the contents of their
established by INE are not recorded. This last point is communication channels in order to inform users
not limiting, given that most of the population sleeps about COVID-19. First, NSOs’ official webpages have
and works within the established timetable. arranged attention-getting banners (or links) redirecting
users towards a dedicated COVID-19 section listing all
DIFFUSION AND COMMUNICATION official statistics available. These COVID-19 dedicated
sections include not only official statistics, but also
One of the main tasks NSO’s have at hand is to inform announcements on NSO operating activities, new
users and other entities about the COVID-19 crisis’ surveys aiming to analyze COVID-19’s impact on the

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