Visits to urban green-space and the countryside associate with different components of mental well-being and are better predictors than perceived or actual local urbanisation intensity

Abstract

Maintaining mental well-being in highly urbanised locations, especially large cities, is challenging but exposure to green-space can promote well-being. We address three poorly resolved questions concerning the relationships between mental health, urbanisation and green-space: i) the relative importance of city size, local intensity of urbanisation and visiting green-space, ii) if visits to urban green-space and the countryside have equivalent associations with well-being, and iii) if biodiversity knowledge moderates relationships between well-being and visiting green-space (such moderation may occur if exposure to biodiversity contributes to relationships between visiting green-space and well-being). We use data from just over 200 respondents recruited in randomised door-to-door surveys across six English cities. We find that visiting green-space increases mental well-being but that city size and the intensity of urbanisation around respondents’ homes have negligible influence. The limited effect of local urbanisation holds when considering the perceived amount of greenery or built-up land rather than objectively quantified indices. More frequent visits to the countryside and urban green-space are positively associated with higher well-being scores, but visits to urban green-space are more strongly associated with lower anxiety, whilst countryside visits associate with higher life satisfaction. Biodiversity knowledge did not consistently moderate relationships between well-being and green-space visit rates. Whilst we use a cross-sectional approach our data suggest that mental well-being can be achieved by residents in highly urbanised locations if they frequently access green-space, but achieving high well-being across all its components requires access to the countryside and not just urban green-space.