HK is closest to resuming pre-pandemic life as it tops normalcy index

Hong Kong ranked first with a staggering 96 percent level on the “normalcy index”, developed to quantify the return of pre-pandemic life by The Economist. 

The “normalcy index” tracks eight variables, including sports attendance, time at home, traffic congestion, retail footfall, office occupancy, flights, film box office and public transport, for 50 countries representing about 75 percent of global population and 90 percent of global GDP. 

The index will also track ongoing behaviour as new restrictions, setbacks or progress is made toward normalcy, factors that would impact levels of human activity. 

Hong Kong ranked the first on the list. New Zealand ranked second with a level of 87 percent, followed by Pakistan, Nigeria and Ukraine with a level of 84 percent. 

The data also suggested that “normalcy” is a bit further off for some other countries, with Britain ranked 36th, the US 20th, France 11th, Germany 33rd, and China ranked 19th. 

The index showed that the world is slowly coming back to pre-pandemic levels. The overall global normalcy index slumped from a value of 80 in early March in 2020 to 35 by mid-April as the virus was spread around the world. 

The global index then rebounded and hit 50 in July 2020, and it has risen to a level of 66 this July.