Investing in Parks and Recreation Leads to Better Community Health

It’s often been said that Park and Recreation is a conduit to activity that leads to better health for community members. Now, data shows that this is absolutely correct.

NRPA recently published an article outlining the economic benefits of parks and how much cost savings equity park access creates inside health care.

In other words, communities that have park trail access within 10 minutes of walking see a huge health care savings for the community members.

What’s more, in this 2017 research paper, 73 percent of Pennsylvania residents agree that “parks, trails and open space are an essential component of our healthcare system”

There was no major statistical difference in response based on income, race or educational level. The fact is that people think parks are important and data shows that it increases health and wellness for those that use them.

This study showed that increases in spending for parks decreases mortality rates. In other words, if communities create better access to parks, people live longer.

The problem is that park investments have declined over the past decade. But the data is clear – community members see the benefits of having park access and look at it as a health benefit and worth the investment.

The hypothesis is that investment has declined because data hasn’t been used correctly or effectively when trying to get funding. NRPA has created the “Annual Health Care Cost Benefit of Equitable Access to Parks Calculator” for you to use to see what benefits your community could see.

Give it shot – I pulled up my hometown and it’s saying we could save more than $2.5M annually in health care expenditures if everybody had better access to parks. For a small community like mine, that’s a big deal.

Parks, trails and open spaces matter. Maybe more than ever. And now there is plenty of data to back that up.