Dynamic population presence linked to home neighbourhoods in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area: A 24-hour weekday and weekend dataset
2026-08-21
In this article, we present a 24-hour population presence dataset from the Helsinki Metropolitan Area (HMA), Finland. This population-level and metropolitan-wide dataset shows hourly population distribution across HMA neighbourhoods on an average weekday (Mon–Fri) and an average weekend day (Sat–Sun), and links people’s hourly presence to their home neighbourhoods. The dataset was derived from mobile phone data, collected by a major Finnish mobile network operator in 2021, through anonymisation, spatio-temporal aggregation, normalisation, and weighting based on neighbourhood population data from Statistics Finland. The published data serve as a calibrated and validated proxy for the entire HMA population distribution. Data validation showed strong agreement between the population register data and the study population’s residential and night-time presence distribution. By linking dynamic presence data to home neighbourhoods, the dataset allows both people-based and place-based analyses, and integration with socioeconomic indicators. Moreover, its population-level scope, metropolitan-wide coverage, and capture of both weekdays and weekends makes the dataset valuable for a range of research questions and policy applications related to daily mobility, urban vitality, social mixing, green space use, epidemic modelling, and beyond.