Key points

Content:

• Following a review of the Scottish Household Survey (SHS) questionnaire, which aimed to shorten the total interview time for the survey, the majority of environment and climate change questions in the survey are now asked on alternate years only, and will next be reported in the results for 2025.
• Only one environmental question has been retained as an annual question and so was included in the 2024 Scottish Household Survey: “How far away from your home is the nearest public green, blue or open space? how long would it take me to walk there?”. This report only presents results for that question. Users interested in environmental statistics may also find it helpful to look at results of our previous 2023 SHS publication (which contains results from the full suite of SHS environment and climate change questions) and the Scottish Government’s Scottish Climate Survey 2024.

Results:

• The percentage of respondents who reported living within a 5-minute walk of their nearest green or blue space increased very slightly between 2023 and 2024 (from 68% to 70%). Overall, in the period 2013 to 2024, the trend has been broadly flat, with this figure consistently lying between 65% and 70% each year.
• There was a large variation in responses according to selected characteristics. Those least likely to report living within a 5-minute walk of their nearest green or blue space were people who lived in large urban areas, worshiped a religion other than Christianity, belonged to a minority ethnic group, were in bad health, were disabled, lived in deprived areas or were aged 75 and over.