DOI: 10.5255/ukda-sn-9092-12
title: People and Nature Survey for England, 2020-2025: Open Access
title: People and Nature Survey for England, 2020-
title: The People and Nature Survey; PaNS; APaNS

description: &lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;People and Nature Survey for England&lt;/span&gt; is one of the main sources of data and statistics on how people experience and think about the environment. It began collecting data in April 2020 and has been collecting data since. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The survey builds on the &lt;a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/monitor-of-engagement-with-the-natural-environment-survey-purpose-and-results" class="x_x_x_x_x_govuk-link"&gt;Monitor of Engagement with the Natural Environment&lt;/a&gt; (MENE) survey which ran from 2009 to 2019. Data from the &lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;People and Nature Survey for England&lt;/span&gt; enables users to:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;understand how people use, enjoy, and are motivated to protect the natural environment&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;monitor changes in use of the natural environment over time, at a range of different spatial scales and for key groups within the population&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;understand how being in the natural environment can influence wellbeing&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;understand environmental attitudes and the actions people take at home, in the garden and in the wider community to protect the environment&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;This data contributes to Natural England’s delivery of statutory duties, informs Defra policy and natural capital accounting, and contributes to the outcome indicator framework for the 25 Year Environment Plan.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Different versions of the &lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;People and Nature Survey for England&lt;/span&gt; are available from the UK Data Archive under Open Access (SN 9092) conditions, Safeguarded (SN 9093), and Secure Access (Controlled) (SN 9094). &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Secure Access version includes the same data as the Safeguarded version, but includes more detailed variables including:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;age as a continuous variable&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;sex&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;whether gender is the same as at birth&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;sexual orientation&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;more detailed ethnicity&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;where journey to recent visit to green and natural space started from&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;visit date&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;detailed home geography, including local authority districts, local nature recovery strategies areas, national character areas; urban/rural area, and Index of Multiple Deprivation&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;a number of variables that have not been top-coded, including number of children and number of children in household, food and drink expenditure, and income&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Open Access version includes the same data as the Safeguarded version, but does &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;not&lt;/span&gt; include the following variables:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span&gt;age band&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span&gt;gender identity&lt;br&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span&gt;marital status&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span&gt;number of children living in household&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;number of children&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span&gt;work status&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span&gt;student working status&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span&gt;income&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span&gt;qualification&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span&gt;ethnicity and consent to answer ethnicity question&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span&gt;number of vehicles&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span&gt;presence of dog in household&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span&gt;physical activity&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span&gt;various health data&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;Researchers are advised to review the Open Access and/or the Safeguarded versions to determine if these are adequate prior to ordering the Secure Access version.&lt;/p&gt;Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. An explanation can be found on the &lt;a href="https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/accredited-official-statistics/"&gt;Office for Statistics Regulation website&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Natural England's statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in January 2023. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Users are welcome to contact Natural England directly at &lt;a href="mailto:people_and_nature@naturalengland.org.uk"&gt;people_and_nature@naturalengland.org.uk&lt;/a&gt; with any comments about how they meet these standards. Alternatively, users can contact OSR by emailing &lt;a href="mailto:regulation@statistics.gov.uk"&gt;regulation@statistics.gov.uk&lt;/a&gt; or via the OSR website.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Since the latest review by the Office for Statistics Regulation, Natural England have continued to comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics, and have made the following improvements:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;Published a development plan with timetables for future work, which will be updated annually&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Ensured that users have opportunities to contribute to development planning through their biannual Research User Group&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Enabled wider access to the data by publishing raw data sets through the UK Data Service&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Provided users with guidance on how statistics from their products can be compared with those produced in the devolved nations&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Published guidance on the differences between PaNS and MENE&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Improved estimates of the percentage of people visiting nature in the previous 14 days by reducing the amount of respondents answering ‘don’t know’.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;p&gt;These data are available in Excel, SPSS, as well as Open Document Spreadsheet (ODS) formats.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; 
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Latest edition information&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For the 12th edition (&lt;span&gt;February 2026&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;), data for &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;July-September 2025 (Quarter 22) &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;have been added to the study and the documentation updated accordingly.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;