On the weekend of January 20th 2017, Washington D.C. saw two major political events unfold: the Presidential Inauguration and the Women’s March on Washington. There has been much discussion surrounding the attendance of these events, and we think we can provide some insight using location data supplied to Fysical to help settle this debate.

Presidential Inauguration crowd. Credit: 58th Presidential Inaugural Committee

Women’s March on Washington crowd. Credit: ABC News

We analyzed millions of anonymous location data points from that weekend, and we found that 3 times as many people visited the Women’s March on Washington as the Presidential Inauguration.

The graphic below shows anonymous foot traffic patterns during the Inauguration (purple dots) and the Women’s March on Washington (pink dots). Visit Fysical’s website here.

We determined this with data supplied to Fysical by examining the density of people per square meter on the National Mall and surrounding areas.

Density of people per square meter is a common metric used when determining crowd size and crowd ‘flow rate,’ or the ability for the crowd to move.

Density of people per square meter examples:

1 person per square meter: the crowd appears to be less populous and can move quite freely

5 people per square meter: the crowd stands shoulder to shoulder and its movement is extremely restricted

Credit to Dr. G Keith Still for this infographic on crowd safety.

While both crowds were densely packed into some areas of the National Mall and surrounding areas at a ratio of 5 people per square meter, the greatest difference between these two crowds was the ability to maintain this density throughout the whole area. The Women’s March on Washington did so much more effectively than the Inauguration crowd, which had more areas with smaller density ratios of 1.5 and less than 1.

On average, the Women’s March on Washington maintained a density per square meter ratio throughout the National Mall and surrounding areas that was 3 times greater than that of the Inauguration crowd.

What is Fysical?

Fysical is a decentralized location data marketplace. We help marketers, investors, AI, AR, and smart cities make better decisions by selling them location data on where people go.

Visit Fysical’s website here: https://fysical.org/