A study by Natural England claims there is a positive impact from the natural environment on mental wellbeing.
Called Monitoring of Engagement with the Natural Environment (MENE): Wellbeing and the natural environment, (free download) the report consists of data from over 3,500 interviews conducted between May 2012 and February 2013.
Survey participants were asked a series of questions about how and when they used the natural environment alongside standard questions around life satisfaction, happiness, and anxiety.
Respondents who were regular users of the outdoors were far more likely to give positive assessments of their mental wellbeing.
On a scale from 0 (not at all) to 10 (completely), the highest levels of happiness were recorded by people who typically visit the outdoors more than once a week (mean score of 7.7) and people who take part in gardening (7.6).
People who strongly agreed that they 'are glad natural places existed, even if they didn’t visit them' also fell within this group recording high levels of happiness (7.7).
Happiness levels are also found to be closely correlated with part time workers, 'empty nesters' (those aged over 55 with no children at home) and retired people with no disabilities.
Dave Stone, deputy chief scientist at Natural England, said: "This wide-ranging survey adds to the growing body of evidence showing that the natural environment has a significant role to play in improving our mental wellbeing.
"A survey of this scale, demonstrating such a striking profile of the mental wellbeing of those using the outdoors on a regular basis, is worth taking account of."
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