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Life Guide U.S. essentials
English

Count nearby green space when choosing where to live, but don't expect "going to the park more" to extend your life

  • Moderate value
  • Evidence A
  • Buys life
  • Disputed
  • Free
  • Takes minutes
  • No willpower

In plain words

The more green space within 500 meters of home, the lower the chance of dying over the same period: about 4% lower for each 0.1 increase in the vegetation index. What was measured is the greenery around the home, not how often you go to a park. Greener areas tend to have richer residents and better air. So don't read this as "go to the park and live longer"; just count the nearby green space when choosing where to live.

Cost

Free. Glance at the greenery around a place when you view it.

What you get

This is the result of pooling 9 studies that followed groups of people for many years (a meta-analysis of cohort studies), covering 7 countries and 8,320,000 (832万) people. It looked at the level of greenery within 500 meters of home, measured with the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI, a number converted from the green cover of the ground). For each 0.1 increase in the index, the pooled hazard ratio for all-cause mortality was 0.96 (95% CI 0.94–0.97), a chance of dying over the same period about 4% lower, with the true value probably between 3% and 6% lower. 7 of the 9 studies found that greener areas had lower mortality, and the difference did not look like chance. The other 2 showed no link.

Notes

Disputed. The results of the studies differ widely (I²=95%; the larger this number, the less the studies agree with each other). And what it measures is the level of greenery around the home, which has nothing to do with how often you go to a park. People who live in green places are often also richer, have better air and exercise more, and these cannot be separated from the greenery to tell which is at work. Don't read it as "going to the park extends life"; the usable part is to count green space when you choose a home, at zero cost. As for the NDVI number, bare ground and concrete are close to 0 and dense vegetation is close to 1. So "0.1" is roughly the difference between moving from a bare block to a block with rows of street trees.

Evidence grade
A : Specific numbers from meta-analyses, large cohorts or randomized trials; for law and policy, the statute or official text.
Sources
  1. Rojas-Rueda D, Nieuwenhuijsen MJ, Gascon M, Perez-Leon D, Mudu P (2019). Green spaces and mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies. The Lancet Planetary Health, 3(11), e469-e477. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(19)30215-3

Translated from the Chinese original. Original book, section 22, tip 10. Content may be out of date and rules differ by place. When you actually deal with an agency, a doctor or a court, follow what local officials, doctors and lawyers tell you. Disclaimer