UK Towns & Cities With The Most Parks

Photographed by Meg O'Donnell

If 2020 has taught us anything, it's that access to nature and green spaces is vital to our mental and physical wellbeing. The British picnic has pretty much saved our lockdown summer and many of us got into home and park workouts when going to the gym wasn't an option.

It's arguable that our parks have never felt more important – especially for those of us living in a city without the luxury of a garden or even a small balcony. So it's definitely interesting to check out new research revealing which cities and large towns in the UK have the most park space relative to their number of inhabitants.

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Milton Keynes is top of the list compiled by Holidu, which used the Open Street Maps database to obtain the surface area of each park in the UK’s biggest towns and cities. The Buckinghamshire town has 15.42 square metres of park per 10 inhabitants – more than double the second-greenest place on the list, Warrington in Cheshire, which has 6.36 square metres of park per 10 inhabitants.

Peterborough in Cambridgeshire is third with 6.30 square metres of park per 10 inhabitants, followed by Northampton in Northamptonshire with 5.51 square metres per 10 inhabitants.

London is home to world-famous parks including Hyde Park, Victoria Park and St James' Park, as well as some cute secret gardens. But because of its massive population, it only ranks 42nd on the list with 1.94 square metres per 10 inhabitants.

Check out the top 20 in full below.

1. Milton Keynes – 15.30m² / 10 inhabitants

2. Warrington – 6.36m² / 10 inhabitants

3. Peterborough – 6.30m² / 10 inhabitants

4. Northampton – 5.51m² / 10 inhabitants

5. Stoke-on-Trent – 5.44m² / 10 inhabitants

6. Coventry – 4.95m² / 10 inhabitants

7. Leeds – 4.49m² / 10 inhabitants

8. Wolverhampton – 3.95m² / 10 inhabitants

9. Exeter – 3.93m² / 10 inhabitants

10. Dundee – 3.76m² / 10 inhabitants

11. Cardiff – 3.55m² / 10 inhabitants