  Existing empirical work has focused on assessing the effectiveness of
non-pharmaceutical interventions on human mobility to contain the spread of
COVID-19. Less is known about the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has
reshaped the spatial patterns of population movement within countries.
Anecdotal evidence of an urban exodus from large cities to rural areas emerged
during early phases of the pandemic across western societies. Yet, these claims
have not been empirically assessed. Traditional data sources, such as censuses
offer coarse temporal frequency to analyse population movement over short-time
intervals. Drawing on a data set of 21 million observations from Facebook
users, we aim to analyse the extent and evolution of changes in the spatial
patterns of population movement across the rural-urban continuum in Britain
over an 18-month period from March, 2020 to August, 2021. Our findings show an
overall and sustained decline in population movement during periods of high
stringency measures, with the most densely populated areas reporting the
largest reductions. During these periods, we also find evidence of
higher-than-average mobility from highly dense population areas to low densely
populated areas, lending some support to claims of large-scale population
movements from large cities. Yet, we show that these trends were temporary.
Overall mobility levels trended back to pre-coronavirus levels after the easing
of non-pharmaceutical interventions. Following these interventions, we also
found a reduction in movement to low density areas and a rise in mobility to
high density agglomerations. Overall, these findings reveal that while COVID-19
generated shock waves leading to temporary changes in the patterns of
population movement in Britain, the resulting vibrations have not significantly
reshaped the prevalent structures in the national pattern of population
movement.

Physics and Society