Urban segregation: insights from mobile phone data

Merging administrative data and MNO data to estimate urban segregation at a local level

Insee
experiment
mobile phone data
administrative data
Published

1 January 2018

Project summary

Urban segregation: insights from mobile phone data
Project details By combining mobile telephony data and administrative tax data, this study analyses segregation in France’s main urban centres. Social and spatial segregation indices are constructed using the frequency of interactions between each operator’s customers. These synthetic indicators provide a picture of social segregation, its level and its evolution over time - on a weekly and calendar year basis. The indices also make it possible to measure the propensity to communicate more strongly within the same social group, defined by an income criterion, or on the contrary a strong interaction between several social groups. In particular, this makes it possible to measure the contrast in the behaviour of extreme social groups. The segregation profile revealed by the mobile telephony data is compared with existing literature on the subject. Particular attention is paid to ‘urban policy’ neighbourhoods, where the issue of segregation has been particularly well documented.
Players Insee
Project products and documentation - Urban segregation: insights from mobile phone data , 2018 Statistical Methodology Days (Journées de méthodologie statistique 2018)