This spring Locatus conducted a large-scale shopping footfallcount in 32 European cities. From Amsterdam to Athens, from Milan to Manchester, we counted pedestrians at strategic locations.
We do this to gain insight into the appeal and vibrancy of shopping areas, after the quiet years of the pandemic and changing consumer shopping habits.
The counts took place on several Saturdays in March and April, each time under similar conditions: with no national holidays or major events.
Large differences from previous footfall counts
Many of the cities where we counted this spring also showed up during the fall of 2021. If we compare these periods, we notice the staggering differences, in some areas the numbers have even doubled. At the same time, we see that growth is considerably more limited in less touristy cities, such as Düsseldorf and Cologne.
Marienplatz in Munich busiest
Marienplatz, Munich
From the results of the 32 cities surveyed, Munich emerged as the busiest city, especially at the counting point on Marienplatz. Here we counted more than 127,800 bypassers. Munich was followed by Frankfurt, where we also noted very high numbers on Zeil.
An important note about these figures is that both Marienplatz, and Zeil are wide pedestrian areas. Here we count the footfall across the full width of the street.
In cities such as London and Paris, the situation is different. There, cars drive through the main shopping streets, often limiting pedestrian traffic to one side of the street. People therefore shop mainly on the side where they are and must cross to reach stores on the opposite side. For this reason, we count both sidewalks separately in these types of streets.
The busiest point in London is Oxford Street near Oxford Circus subway station. On the south side we counted 86,000 passers-by, and 44,000 on the north side. Collectively, this works out to 130,000 passers-by, making Oxford Street technically the highest total. For our reports, however, we consider these sides as separate counting points, because the crossing between them is not direct or obvious. Therefore, as an integral pedestrian area, Munich’s Marienplatz remains for us the busiest shopping street within this count.
Top 10 European cities with the highest number of passers-by
Based on this data, we then arrive at the following top 10:
For the Benelux, we see that rue Neuve in Brussels comes in at spot 7. Amsterdam does not appear in the top 10. Amsterdam’s Nieuwendijk only comes in at spot 19 of the 32 cities surveyed, still after Parijs, Hamburg, Dublin, Prague, Athens, Düsseldorf, Birmingham and Rome.
Order footfall report
Curious about all 32 cities? We have reports for each city covering various shopping areas, providing insight into footfall patterns and pedestrian flows. Because we have been counting in a uniform manner for many years, we are also able to accurately map changes over time by comparing different counts.
Click on the link to view all available cities and order your European passer-by report(s) for a shopping area of your choice now:
