Results - walking distance to nearest green or blue space

Over the long term, there has been little variation in the percentage of respondents who reported living within a 5-minute walk of their nearest green or blue space.

Figure 1: Percentage of public (16+) who reported living within a 5-minute walk of their nearest green or blue space, 2013 to 2024.

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.

Figure 2, shows the variation in the percentage of adults who reported living within a 5-minute walk of their nearest green or blue space in 2024, according to selected characteristics. Men and women gave very similar responses but for all other characteristics there were large variations. 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.

It is worth noting that the survey question is framed in terms of how long the respondent thinks it would take the interviewer (not interviewee) to walk to the nearest green or blue space. This aims to control for differences in walking ability.

Estimated walking distance to nearest green or blue space showed large variation according to selected characteristics.

Figure 2: Percentage of public (16+) who reported living within a 5-minute walk of their nearest green or blue space, 2024.

Note: the plausible range refers to a 95% confidence interval (see glossary), however this simple interpretation helps to provide an indication of uncertainty. Data for this figure is available in the supporting documents.