Physical environment: green and blue space

The provision of good quality greenspace and encouraging access to it has a number of health benefits, promoting both physical health (especially for children) and mental health and wellbeing. The Scottish Household Survey publishes data on access to open green or blue (water) space across Scotland, by Index of Multiple Deprivation and local authority of residence, and the results from this survey inform the assessment of the environment-related national outcomes in the Scottish National Performance Framework. The 2022 Scottish Household Survey saw a return to face-to-face data collection, following changes in methodology in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that the 2022 results are not comparable to those from 2020 and 2021.

There are inequalities in access to green and blue space: Chart 1 shows that 57% of adults in the most deprived Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) quintile lived within a 5 minute walk of green or blue space, compared with 73% in the least deprived quintile. The middle deprivation quintile reported the highest proportion of adults with green or blue space within a 5 minute walk (75%).

As can be seen in Chart 2, adults living in the most deprived Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) quintile were less likely to have visited the outdoors at least weekly (56%), compared to those in the least deprived quintile (77%).

There was an association between self-perceived health and proximity to green and blue space: 72% of adult Scottish Household Survey respondents who said that they had very good or good health lived within a 5 minute walk of green or blue space, compared to 66% of those who reported their health as fair, and 57% of those who reported their health as bad or very bad (from Scottish Household Survey 2022: Key findings supporting documents, Tables - 7 Environment, worksheet 7_66).

Between June 2020 and September 2021, NatureScot conducted three waves of a survey to investigate the impact of Coronavirus and social distancing on people in Scotland’s engagement with nature. Respondents spent more time outdoors from mid-August to early September 2021 compared to the same period in 2019. Although a similar percentage of respondents from the most and least deprived SIMD deciles reported that their local greenspaces were in easy walking or wheeling distance from their homes (79% and 80% respectively), only two thirds (67%) of those in the most deprived areas said that their local greenspaces were of a high enough quality to want to spend time there, compared to around three quarters (76%) of those in the least deprived areas. There was a correlation between the frequency of visits to the outdoors and the reported accessibility and quality of local greenspaces (Enjoying the Outdoors - Monitoring the impact of Coronavirus and social distancing - Wave 3 survey results).

A summary of findings from surveys about COVID-19 and greenspace from the Environment and Spaces for Public Health Partnership Group, hosted by Public Health Scotland, found that the use of greenspace increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, but that socio-economic inequality in relation to greenspace use increased. The results demonstrate the importance of green and open spaces for mental health and wellbeing, and the report recommends that improvements are made to the access and quality of greenspaces, to meet the needs of people with different needs, abilities and interests.

Reports from Public Health Scotland’s COVID-19 Early years resilience and impact survey (CEYRIS) contain information about children’s use of outdoor spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland. The survey found that, in 2020, 89% of children in low-, 94% of children in medium- and 96% of children in high-income households had access to quality greenspace (COVID-19 Early Years Resilience and Impact Survey – Report 4 – full findings, 2.3 MB). 

In 2011, Greenspace Scotland and its partners published Scotland's Greenspace Map providing comprehensive information on greenspace across all of Scotland's urban settlements. More information on this and other resources made available through Greenspace Scotland is available in the key data sources section.