Northampton’s most-visited greenspaces of 2024
As Spring has sprung across Northampton town and local people are returning to enjoy the great outdoors, the latest data collated by the University of Northampton as part of its work with the Active Quarter has unearthed the town’s most-visited green spaces…and the results may surprise you.
Published April 30, 2025
At the beginning of 2024, the Active Quarter partnership successfully secured funding to monitor how many people are visiting Northampton’s parks.
This funding was awarded through the University of Northampton’s Higher Education Innovation Scheme, allowing the Active Quarter partnership to better understand how local people make use of parks in the area.
Visitors were measured using anonymised smartphone GPS data (where users had consented to share this) which, in turn, provided the Active Quarter with monthly estimates of how many people were visiting local parks.
The results are in for 2024, and from data which reveals more than 3.8 million single visits* were made across a total of local 17 greenspaces, the top five attracting the most attendees were:
Amounting to 75% of all visits to the listed greenspaces, this data reinforces the feedback received by the partnership on an ongoing basis – that residents place important social value on their local parks for socialising, escaping urban environments, and helping to manage their mental health and wellbeing.
As the data continues to roll-in, it will help reveal patterns of use by residents, commuters, and visitors, allowing the partnership to strategically manage these spaces and better understand whether efforts to improve access to these spaces have been successful.
The collected data will also help support Northamptonshire’s Integrated Care System to monitor their progress to achieving their ‘Live Your Best Life strategy’, as well as helping West Northamptonshire Council with its ambition to ensure local parks are well-maintained and accessible to all, as part of the Clean and Green priority within its Corporate plan.
The University of Northampton’s Associate Professor in Physical Activity & Health – and representative for the University’s involvement in the Active Quarter Partnership – Declan Ryan said:
”This is a really important way to help us estimate park visitors, which is something that is not consistently measured across the county. Alongside the interviews we've done with residents as a part of ongoing research, we are starting to build up a picture of just how important parks are for our community. This research can help inform future planning so that local outdoor spaces can fully meet the needs of local people.
Declan RyanUniversity of Northampton
Find out more about the work of the Active Quarter and how to get involved via the website.
*The total footfall between 1 January and 31 December 2024 is based on the number of GPS pings from smartphones and extrapolated data. The data is not unique per person, which means this could include multiple visits by the same individual.