Park, Beach, Open Space, or Coastline Access

This table contains data on access to parks measured as the percent of population within ½ a mile of a parks, beach, open space or coastline for California, its regions, counties, county subdivisions, cities, towns, and census tracts. More information on the data table and a data dictionary can be found in the Data and Resources section. As communities become increasingly more urban, parks and the protection of green and open spaces within cities increase in importance. Parks and natural areas buffer pollutants and contribute to the quality of life by providing communities with social and psychological benefits such as leisure, play, sports, and contact with nature. Parks are critical to human health by providing spaces for health and wellness activities. The access to parks table is part of a series of indicators in the Healthy Communities Data and Indicators Project (HCI) of the Office of Health Equity. The goal of HCI is to enhance public health by providing data, a standardized set of statistical measures, and tools that a broad array of sectors can use for planning healthy communities and evaluating the impact of plans, projects, policy, and environmental changes on community health. The creation of healthy social, economic, and physical environments that promote healthy behaviors and healthy outcomes requires coordination and collaboration across multiple sectors, including transportation, housing, education, agriculture and others. Statistical metrics, or indicators, are needed to help local, regional, and state public health and partner agencies assess community environments and plan for healthy communities that optimize public health. The format of the access to parks table is based on the standardized data format for all HCI indicators. As a result, this data table contains certain variables used in the HCI project (e.g., indicator ID, and indicator definition). Some of these variables may contain the same value for all observations.