Outdoor recreation and the well-being of rural residents

Abstract

Greater access to natural environments and opportunities for contact with nature afforded by rural living have the potential to drive differences in quality of life between rural and urban areas. Yet, while there is an established body of evidence on the well-being benefits of access to natural environments, much of the literature focuses on urban areas, with specific exploration of the rural context lacking. This chapter addresses this gap by investigating relationships between outdoor recreation participation and rural well-being, drawing on empirical data from Scotland. We present findings from a mixed-method research programme including qualitative research into nature-based interventions in rural Scotland and quantitative survey data analysis exploring the extent to which outdoor recreation explains variation in well-being across levels of rurality/urbanity, and inequalities in outdoor recreation participation. The findings support a view of rural natural environments as a health resource which, through outdoor recreation, can support the well-being of rural residents. However, there are disparities in engagement in outdoor recreation between demographic groups, indicating that such benefits of rural living are unequally distributed within the population and pointing to the value of targeted nature-based interventions. Furthermore, we observed differences between accessible and remote rural areas, including greater polarisation in outdoor recreation participation in remote areas and wider inequalities in relation to gender and ethnicity. Remote rural areas were, however, associated with frequent outdoor recreation by young people, a less pronounced drop-off in participation among older adults, and an apparent lack of area deprivation effects on outdoor recreation.