DOI: 10.3886/icpsr38586.v2
title: National Neighborhood Data Archive (NaNDA): Parks by Census Tract and ZIP Code Tabulation Area, United States, 2018 and 2022
title: Version 2

description: Prior research has demonstrated that access to parks and greenspace can have a positive impact on many aspects of and contributors to health, including physical activity levels (Kaczynski et al., 2007), healthy aging (Finlay, 2015), and sense of well-being (Larson et al., 2016). Neighborhood parks can also contribute to sense of community (Gómez, 2015). These datasets describe the number and area of parks in each census tract or each ZIP code tabulation area (ZCTA) in the United States. Measures include the total number of parks, park area, and proportion of park area within each census tract or ZCTA.
description: The purpose of this study is to examine the number and density of publicly accessible parks within census tracts and ZIP code tabulation areas within the United States.
description: The research team projected the TIGER/Line shapefiles for census tracts/ZIP code tabulation areas (ZCTA) to the North American Albers equal-area conic projection in ArgGIS Pro, then performed a pairwise intersect between the ParkServe and TIGER/Line shapefiles.


To obtain the total number of parks in each tract/ZCTA, the team counted the number of unique ParkIDs of open parks fully or partially overlapping the tract. Parks were defined as open if they had both open status and access (ParkStatus = Open; ParkAccess = Open). Additional parks for which park status was open but access was unknown were treated as open. Some areas had a very high number of parks, so count variables were top-coded at three, five, and ten parks to control for this (<strong>COUNT_OPEN_PARKS_TC3, COUNT_OPEN_PARKS_TC5, COUNT_OPEN_PARKS_TC10</strong>).


Finally, the team calculated the total area of each tract/ZCTA in square meters and square miles, the total park area within each tract/ZCTA in square meters and square miles, and the proportion of park area to tract/ZCTA area.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Parks by Census Tract Data (2010 Census)
DS2: Parks by ZIP Code Tabulation Area Data (2010 Census)
DS3: Parks by Census Tract Data (2020 Census)
DS4: Parks by ZIP Code Tabulation Area Data (2020 Census)
description: Census tract and ZIP code tabulation areas in the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii (excluding island territories). Smallest Geographic Unit: census tract and ZIP code tabulation area
description: The data and documentation for data file 1 (Parks by Census Tract Data (2010 Census)) (National Neighborhood Data Archive (NaNDA): Parks by Census Tract, United States, 2018) and data file 2 (Parks by ZIP Code Tabulation Area Data (2010 Census)) (National Neighborhood Data Archive (NaNDA): Parks by ZIP Code Tabulation Area, United States, 2018) were originally deposited in openICPSR.A ZIP code to ZIP code tabulation area (ZCTA) crosswalk must be used to combine this dataset with ZIP code geocoded data. A crosswalk and sample code for merging the crosswalk with National Neighborhood Data Archive (NaNDA) datasets are available in the ICPSR Linkage Library.For additional information see the National Neighborhood Data Archive (NaNDA).