This is the second part of a series of blogs looking at different age ranges and how they differ in their interactions with the outdoors. For the sake of this blog Adults are in the age range of 16-65 as this is where the data is. Adults as a whole are our most independent age range and will require less assistance with accessing the outdoors. Despite this they are much busier than the other two age ranges (Children and Elderly). Adults make up roughly 63% of our population so it's very important they understand the great benefits of the outdoors and are really making the most of them.
So let's start with how often are adults going outside? 53% of adults go to an outdoors space once a week and 15% of adults manage to go outside everyday. This ends up being roughly 6.5 million adults which is really encouraging to see. Unfortunately 14% of people will go outside once a month. This gives us a good picture of how often people are going outside but where are they going? Half of adults going outside are attending parks or urban green spaces. Rivers, lakes and Canals are visited by roughly a third of adults and just under a third of adults visit farmland, countryside and woodlands. And 29% of people visit the coast. So other than parks Adults are spending time in a wide variety of natural spaces. Unfortunately in the last five years people have been making less use of their gardens with only 75% of adults making use of their garden once a week. 7 out of 10 adults are able to walk to a green space in less than 15 minutes and more adults are saying it's easy to walk to an outdoors space. The younger group of adults tend to spend more time outside than older aged adults. Some of this data is really encouraging and some of it is not. Compared to children on the whole adults are spending significantly less time outside than children.
For some adults time outside is clearly an important part of life and for others it has less importance. It's important for adults to spend time outside due to the positive benefits to their well being. Time outside is widely accepted to improve mental, physical and social health.
Mental Health: Natural environments make us feel less stressed as spending time in them lowers our cortisol levels. This lowers our blood pressure and heart rate making us feel more relaxed. Sunlight and fresh air increase serotonin levels which helps combat low mood and anxiety. It's vital that adults are looking after their mental health. Lots of people rely on adults for support: the elderly, children and other adults. On top of this adults’ work and other life commitments it can be a lot. Going on challenging hikes or runs can develop resilience and mental fortitude helping equip people for the difficult chapters of life. 91% of adults who go outside once every two weeks believe the outdoors to have a positive effect on their mental health. Natural environments offer a great escape from the stresses of life.
Physical Health: The Outdoors is a great place to exercise and naturally outdoor environments encourage movement whether that's running, walking or engaging in sport. The outdoors does so much more for our physical health than just being a place to exercise. Sunlight is a source of vitamin D and exposure to natural light improves sleep quality through regulating the body's circadian rhythm. Time in natural spaces can also improve your Immunity, specifically forest environments contain phytoncides which are released by trees and increase your white blood cells which are responsible for fighting infection.
Social Health: As natural spaces have all of the benefits we have just read about, they make for an excellent place to socialise. In the summer lots of adults will meet in parks to have picnics, to just hang out or kick a ball about. Group outdoor activities can also often involve a shared sense of achievement, like completing a run or a hike. This communal sense of achievement brings people closer together.
So what's stopping adults from going outside and accessing these great benefits?
The Government did some research on this and they found that. 45% of people said the weather prevented them from going outside, 26% said poor physical health, 24% said homelife gets in the way and 21% said work commitments. These factors certainly do hinder going outside however I believe they do not fully rule out adults accessing the outdoors.
Weather is a factor that in the UK has a massive effect on stopping all people from going outside. Many outdoorsy people will argue there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing. This is not a motto I fully subscribe to, especially when I am stuck in the rain on a hike. But dressing for the weather can help us be more comfortable on those days when the sun isn’t shining. Outdoors clothing can be expensive but if you buy quality items they will look after you for a while and see you through many adventures. So there isn’t a way adults can change the weather but they most certainly can work with it through what they are choosing to wear.
Poor physical health will definitely make it harder to go outside. But when your physical health is down you're going to want to ensure you look after your mental health and going outside is a great way to do just that. Many green spaces have been tailored to be accessible for disabled users. Canals are a great way for those with mobility issues to access the outdoors. They have flat footpaths which often accommodate wheelchair access. If having poor physical health is a barrier that stops you from going outside, asking for the support of others to help get you outside could help you to reap the benefits of the outdoors.
The last two main barriers were home and work commitments getting in the way. Adults have responsibilities and, unfortunately as I have learnt from moving out, there are a lot of them. I wish adults didn’t have responsibilities and could just spend all their time outside. There is nothing we can do to remove these barriers and it's a privilege to look after family members and be able to work but they can stop us from having time to do the things we want to. I believe there are two aspects of getting around this barrier. The first being if adults understood just how good the outdoors is for them then they would make time. If more adults are educated on the great benefits of the outdoors they will prioritise going outside. Adults need to be encouraged to go outside through the use of the media, social media and word of mouth. Once adults appreciate the importance of going outside, they are more likely to set time aside to do so. Therefore the second aspect is them doing that and actually going outside. The more adults go outside they will realise how easy it is to access the great benefits available to them through spending time in nature. And as a result of this realization they are much more likely to go outside more often.
Roughly 6.5 million adults are accessing the benefits of the outdoors on a daily basis. And just over half of adults in the UK are going outside once a week. These are both really encouraging statistics but unfortunately 14% only go outside once a month. To get more Brits outside and reaping these great benefits as a nation we need to be spreading the awareness of what good it does for people. Adults encounter a few barriers when it comes to going outside but nothing that should completely rule out any access to the outdoors. So let's make sure we are going outside and bring those around us with us!
