VISITS to shopping centres in Swindon have plummeted by more than 80 per cent during the UK coronavirus lockdown.

Fascinating location data reports released by Google - sourced from smartphones - demonstrates just how habits have changed over the past fortnight.

People are spending more than 50 per cent less time at work and much more time at home after the government ordered the population to help prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Changes are compared to a baseline which is the median value, for the corresponding day of the week, during the five-week period from January 3 to February 6, 2020.

When it comes to retail and recreation, travel in Swindon is 83 per cent down - meaning people are not visiting restaurants, cafes, shopping centres and cinemas.

Swindon Advertiser:

Grocery and pharmacy locations have received a 44 per cent decrease towards the end of March despite being on the rise at the beginning of the month. 

Swindon Advertiser:

For parks in Swindon, travel there is predicted to be down 30 per cent but Google could not accurately present the number due to a lack of data. 

It said: "Google needs a significant volume of data to generate an aggregated and anonymous view of trends."

Swindon Advertiser:

Transit stations, which includes the Swindon Bus Station and Swindon Train Station has seen a 69 per cent drop.

Swindon Advertiser:

Coming to the end of March, travel to workplaces decreased by 52 per cent but is back on the rise. 

Swindon Advertiser:

The only statistic to buck the negative trend was travel to residential areas. 

This saw a 28 per cent increase with the lockdown coming into effect.

Swindon Advertiser:

In the document, Google says: "Google prepared this report to help you and public health officials understand responses to social distancing guidance related to COVID-19.

"This report shouldn’t be used for medical diagnostic, prognostic, or treatment purposes.

"It also isn’t intended to be used for guidance on personal travel plans.

"Location accuracy and the understanding of categorized places varies from region to region, so we don’t recommend using this data to compare changes between countries, or between regions with different characteristics (e.g. rural versus urban areas)."