This publication is categorised as a CSO Frontier Series Output. Particular care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this release as it may use new methods which are under development and/or data sources which may be incomplete, for example new administrative data sources.
The results contained in this release reflect some of the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 situation. For further information see Background Notes.
More than 40% of respondents aged 18 to 34 took up new outdoor activities since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, compared with 13% of those aged 70 and over.
Participants were more likely to take up sea swimming in the West (27%) and Border regions (34%), while hill walking was the most popular activity in the Mid-West (33%) and cycling in the Mid-East (27%)1.
Respondents aged 18 to 34 (36%) and 35 to 44 (26%) mostly took up running, while almost 30% of respondents in the age groups above 45 mainly started hill walking1.
Since the start of the pandemic, participants living in urban areas were more likely to say they took up running (28%) than respondents living in rural areas (19%).
Respondents aged 18 to 34 liked spending time outdoors to get fresh air (94%), enjoy nature (88%), or take a break (83%).
Participants living in urban areas visited urban green spaces (79%) most frequently, while those living in rural areas mainly visited fields, farmlands, or the countryside (71%).
Over the past six months, 41% of respondents who had access to a garden spent time outdoors daily for recreational purposes, while those who did not were more likely to spend time outdoors on a weekly basis (40%).
Pulse Surveys are part of the CSO 'Take part' Campaign. They are usually short and take the ‘pulse’ of the nation about an issue at a point in time. Pulse Surveys allow the public to get involved in the CSO's work so that your story can become part of the story, the story of Ireland. These types of surveys ensure that the CSO can provide relevant, timely and insightful data for the public.
The 'Our Lives Outdoors' CSO Pulse Survey was carried out online from 22 April to 09 May 2022. It was open to anyone aged 18 years and over living in the Republic of Ireland. The online electronic questionnaire was available on the CSO.ie website and on all CSO social media platforms. This survey gathered 9,346 responses, for which the CSO wishes to thank all the participants who took time to answer this survey.
It is the second publication planned from the 'Our Lives Outdoors' survey. The results in this report reflect only the responses of those who completed the CSO Pulse Survey questionnaire. While results are calibrated to Irish population totals, the findings cannot be generalised to the entire Irish population, as the people who answered the questionnaire were not randomly chosen from the population. As the survey was online it will not represent views of those with no online activity. Outdoor activities are dependent on weather conditions. Some of the results presented in this publication will reflect this seasonal dependency. Even with these caveats, however, we believe that this report provides a valuable insight into our lives outdoors in Ireland. See the Background Notes for further details on the survey methodology. The CSO publishes results of Pulse Surveys as Frontier Publications.
1In order to examine changes in outdoor activities since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, respondents were asked about a range of outdoor activities: Hill walking, Hiking, Running, Cycling, Sea swimming, Other water sports, Outdoor team sports, Mountain climbing, Triathlon, Air sports.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (28 September 2022) released a second publication from the ‘Our Lives Outdoors’ CSO Pulse Survey. This survey was carried out online between 22 April and 09 May 2022, and explored the relationships people have with the outdoors and natural spaces in Ireland. This second publication presents more detailed results on the time people spent outdoors, their experience of it and their use of the outdoors since COVID-19. For further details, see the first publication released in May 2022 'Pulse Survey April-May 2022 - Our Lives Outdoors: Snapshot of Results'.
Commenting on the results of this publication, Sylvie Clappe, Statistician, said: “The COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting restrictions encouraged 41% of young respondents aged 18 to 34 to take up new outdoor activities, compared with 13% of those aged 70 and above. Of the activities proposed in the survey, participants aged 18 to 34 (36%) and 35 to 44 (26%) mostly took up running, while almost 30% of respondents in the age groups above 45 mainly started hill walking1.
Among the activities to choose from in the survey, respondents living in urban areas were more likely to say they took up running (28%) since the start of the pandemic than participants living in small towns or villages (17%) or rural areas (19%). Three in ten participants (31%) who lived in the Dublin region mostly took up running since the pandemic started, while about four in ten of those living in the Midlands started hill walking (44%) or hiking (38%).
Those living in the West (27%) and Border (34%) regions, including counties such as Galway and Donegal, were more likely to take up sea swimming, while hill walking was one of the most popular new outdoor activities in the Mid-West (33%) or South-West (23%). Participants living in the South-East, including Cork and Kerry, preferred hiking (34%), while those in the Mid-East region took up cycling (27%)1.
When it comes to the most frequently visited outdoor spaces, respondents who lived in urban areas mainly preferred going to urban green spaces (79%), while those in rural areas mostly went to fields, farmlands, or the countryside (71%). Participants who lived in the Dublin region mainly visited urban green spaces (88%) and beaches, other coastlines or the sea (67%), while those living in the Midlands most frequently visited rivers, lakes or canals (61%), or fields, farmlands, or the countryside (52%)."