Study: Green Space Means More for Satisfaction Than a Neighborhood’s Average Income

The Atlantic:

PROBLEM: As we’ve seen again and again, people are generally happier when they have access to grass, trees, and flowers. In terms of the many other things required to have a satisfying life in urban settings, how important is living near parks and gardens?

METHODOLOGY: Researchers at the University of Exeter looked at 18 years of data covering almost 10,000 U.K. citizens living in urban areas. By conducting annual surveys, they quantified the participants’ well-being through two measures: how satisfied they were with their lives (asking point-blank: “How dissatisfied or satisfied are you with life overall?”); and whether they had signs of depression, anxiety, or other psychological disorders. The researchers controlled for as many other factors known to significantly influence well-being as possible, like income, job and marital status, health, commute, and housing demographics.

Read the whole story: The Atlantic

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