Green Space Index
Our Green Space Index (GSI) is a unique data tool designed to track and analyse green space provision across Great Britain.
Headline Findings
The 2025 Green Space Index focuses on the accessibility of playing fields across Great Britain. It highlights declining opportunities for outdoor sport and recreation, with far-reaching implications for health and wellbeing.
45% of people do not live within a ten-minute walk of a playing field
Only 1 in 8 councils have good playing field accessibility
Grass pitch closures are more common in deprived areas
Yearly findings
Each year we take a closer look at our parks and green spaces to see which areas need more green spaces or better access to existing ones. Tracking how this changes over time helps us identify where more action needs to be taken.
5.6 million
People without ten-minute walking access to a green space
32m²
Average amount of green space per person
212,000ha
Total amount of green space in Great Britain
Only 6%
Proportion of parks and green spaces that are legally protected
4,000
New parks required by 2033 to maintain current levels.
1 in 3 children aged under nine (2.3 million) in Britain today do not have a playground near their home
How green is your neighbourhood?
Explore our Green Space Index data tool to see how your neighbourhood compares.
What we’ve learnt
The new Green Space Index (GSI) findings highlight a startling lack of accessibility to sport and recreation grounds, with almost half (45%) of people in Great Britain living more than a ten-minute walk from their nearest playing field.
We know access to local green spaces like playing fields is vital to reducing childhood obesity, improving mental wellbeing, supporting economic productivity and creating opportunities for young people, so the findings are highly concerning.
Good quality, accessible playing fields are also crucial for encouraging social cohesion, making them invaluable to communities across Britain.
Green space closures deepening inequalities
While accessible green space provision varies significantly between regions, when mapped against the Government’s Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), the data show that deprived and moderately deprived areas in England are more likely to have lost recreational sites and grass pitches in recent years.
The findings point to a worrying trend: deprivation increases the risk of losing green and recreational spaces that are so essential to community health, social cohesion and environmental resilience.
Tackling this inequality must be prioritised in planning policies moving forward. This will help to ensure that every community has equitable access to the benefits of sport, play and nature.
How we use GSI data to effect change
By providing data-led insights, the GSI plays an important role in our efforts to influence planners, landowners and policymakers to take action to save our parks and green spaces for good.
We also use this data when engaging with landowners. By showing the need and value of green space in their communities, we secured groundbreaking commitments from Liverpool City Council, City of Edinburgh Council and the County Borough of Wrexham to protect their portfolios of green space for good.
Read our Frequently Asked Questions.
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What we are working on
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How we protect parks and green spaces
Discover how Fields in Trust is positively transforming how we protect, support, and champion these precious places.
Get Involved
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Whilst you're here…
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