Physical, mental and social health

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Scotland's People and Nature Survey (SPANS)

Organisation:
NatureScot

Media type:
Statistics

Topic:
Physical, mental and social health

Setting:
Community, Families / residential, Individuals, Town centres / Urban, Leisure & recreation / tourism, Countryside / Rural

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Scotland's People and Nature Survey (SPANS) is a large-scale quantitative survey conducted among a representative sample of adults in Scotland. The survey collects information on how people living in Scotland use, value and enjoy the natural environment.

Key statistics

552.2m

trips to the outdoors involved walking which is 86% of all trips to the outdoors (SPANS 2020)

30.9m

trips to the outdoors (5%) involved cycling or mountainbiking (SPANS 2020)

235.3m

trips to the outdoors (37%) involved walking less than 2 miles (SPANS 2020)

294.6m

trips to the outdoors (46%) involved walking between 2 and 8 miles (SPANS 2020)

22.9m

trips to the outdoors (4%) involved walking more than 8 miles (SPANS 2020)

11.7m

trips to the outdoors (2%) involved hillwalking or mountaineering (SPANS 2020)

42%

of trips to the outdoors were to exercise a dog (SPANS 2020)

41%

of trips to the outdoors were 41% for health / exercise (SPANS 2020)

Walking

has been the most popular outdoor activity for a decade, in the range 79% and 86%, between 2004 and 2019/20 (SPANS 2020)

SPANS provides data on: the number and types of visits people make to the outdoors; what benefits people feel they get from visiting the outdoors; people's perceptions of National Parks, national and local landscapes and the provision of woodland and other types of greenspace for recreation.

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Physical, mental and social health

Scotland's People and Nature Survey (SPANS)

Overview

Key statistics

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