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Studying segregation in Estonia using call data records

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Abstract

Studying segregation between populations of different ages, ethnicities and social classes has been a prominent theme for at least half a century. To measure segregation, past works often use governmental surveys due to the scarcity of reliable data. In this work, we used call data records (CDR) provided by one of the largest mobile operators in Estonia, for studying segregation behavior based on gender, age, language and county. We consider commonly used Freeman’s segregation index for measuring segregation. Our findings suggest that (1) Gender: gender segregation exists in Estonia and its traces are visible in individuals calling hours, connectivity among age-groups, preferred language of communication, calling county and at the workplace; (2) Age: the prime working individuals (i.e., (25–54) age-group) and elderly (i.e., (64–100) age-group) are more segregated; and (3) Language: Estonian-speaking and Russian-speaking individuals are segregated based on language.

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Availability of data and material

Our dataset is partly location data, and it cannot be shared due to privacy concerns. Additionally, despite the fact that the dataset is anonymized at two levels, there is still a small chance that specific persons can be identified. The dataset is owned by our university lab and is accessible for research purposes after signing the NDA (non-disclosure agreement).

Notes

  1. http://pub.stat.ee/

  2. https://www.sm.ee/

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Funding

This research was funded by Estonian Research Council Institutional Research grant PUT PRG306 and ERDF via the IT Academy Research Programme, and H2020 framework project, SoBigData++ and CHIST-ERA project SAI.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Computer Science, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia

    Rahul Goel & Rajesh Sharma

  2. Department of Geography, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia

    Anto Aasa

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  1. Rahul Goel
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  2. Rajesh Sharma
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  3. Anto Aasa
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Correspondence to Rahul Goel.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Not applicable. This work utilizes a non-shareable dataset.

Authors’ contributions

Rahul Goel performed formal analysis, investigation, validation, visualization and writing— original draft. Rajesh Sharma contributed to supervision and writing—review and editing. Anto Aasa performed data curation and formal analysis.

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Goel, R., Sharma, R. & Aasa, A. Studying segregation in Estonia using call data records. Soc. Netw. Anal. Min. 11, 98 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13278-021-00817-0

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