Visiting National Parks: A Healthcare Boost for All

Good for Our Health and Wellbeing

Visiting a national park is good for our health and wellbeing. But the benefits are not shared equally across the community. Often the people who need it most are least able to access a high-quality dose of nature.

Quantifying the Benefit to the Health System

We wanted to quantify the benefit to the health system, in dollar terms. After all, health budgets are steadily growing while urban green spaces with high biodiversity are often degraded and squeezed by development.

New Research

Our new research puts a dollar value on the health benefits of visits to national parks within reach of the city of Adelaide in South Australia. We estimate every visit saves the health budget almost A$100 ($96).

How Did We Estimate This?

Past research shows spending time in nature may reduce stress, depression, anxiety, obesity, type II diabetes, heart disease, and lung disease. The health benefits of access to green space are often cited to support the conservation of biodiversity, particularly in cities.

Methodology

To find out more, we examined the health benefits of access to nature in 20 national parks within 60 kilometres of central Adelaide over the 2018–19 financial year.

Results

We found that access to these green spaces could be worth $140 million a year in reduced healthcare costs. This is equivalent to around 4% of the total South Australian healthcare budget.

How Much Good Does a Visit Do?

We analyzed the health benefits of more than 1.45 million visits to national parks during the course of our study. We found access to these green spaces could be worth $140 million a year in reduced healthcare costs. This is equivalent to around 4% of the total South Australian healthcare budget. Dividing $140 million by 1,453,271 visits works out to $96 per visit.

Access to Nature is Not Equal

We found people living in lower socioeconomic areas have to travel about three times as far to visit a national park than people in higher socioeconomic areas. As a result, people from lower socioeconomic areas tend to make fewer visits to national parks. We found the number of visits for people from these areas was about 20% of the number of visits from people in higher socioeconomic areas.

Spending on Health and the Environment

In total, Australia spent around $241.3 billion on health goods and services in 2021–22. That’s about $9,365 per person, on average. Health costs such as hospital spending continue to grow.

Conclusion

Our research suggests making nature more accessible by restoring urban biodiversity and increasing access to our protected areas can be a win for people, governments, and the budget. To fully realise and share these benefits, we need better integrated budgets which recognise how the natural world benefits our health and the broader economy.

FAQs

Q: What are the health benefits of visiting national parks?
A: Visiting national parks can reduce stress, depression, anxiety, obesity, type II diabetes, heart disease, and lung disease.

Q: How did you estimate the benefit to the health system?
A: We used de-identified mobile phone “ping” data and a survey of over 1,000 park visitors to estimate the number of visitors and health benefits.

Q: What is the cost of treating chronic diseases in Australia?
A: The cost of treating chronic diseases in Australia is around $241.3 billion.

Q: How can we make nature more accessible?
A: We can make nature more accessible by restoring urban biodiversity and increasing access to our protected areas.