Is COVID-19 a density problem? Our findings suggest no.

This exploratory data analysis studies whether the crowding of people, buildings, and public transportation access within cities appears to have an association with the spread of COVID-19 in NYC and Philadelphia.

Some research has highlighted factors that are frequently concurrent with density as predictive of COVID-19 spread:

• prevalence of public transit over driving

• smaller, more crowded establishments and homes

• shared common spaces in housing

• more people in shared housing