Recent research findings suggest that perceived health and wellbeing benefits derived from exposure to nature are greater for those spending 120 minutes or more in nature each week all year around. This research piece used data from the Adult’s People and Nature Survey (A-PaNS) to explore the proportion of English respondents who might be spending enough time in nature to receive greater health benefits. The results could feed into the “G7” indicator of Defra’s 25 Year Environment Plan which relates to wellbeing benefits derived from people’s engagement with nature.
Our results indicate that approximately one-third of the respondents surpassed the 120-minutes a week threshold across all years. Year 1 (April 2020-March 2021) had the highest proportion of respondents spending 120 minutes or more in nature weekly, at 33%. This was statistically significantly different to the proportions in year 2 (April 2021-March 2022) and year 3 (April 2022-March 2023), both at 32%. All years were statistically significantly different from year 4 (31%, April 2023-March 2024).
Demographic subgroups differences across years were also similar. The demographic subgroups having the highest proportion of respondents meeting the 120-minute benchmark across all years were: older respondents (aged 55+), men, White, not deprived, with “good” health and employed or retired.