77% of UK adults, or about 38 million people, say they walk for pleasure at least once a month.
62% of these walk more than 2 miles/3.2km.
62% say that walking is their main form of exercise (ICM 2000).
The most recent official national survey (National Statistics 1997) found 44.5% of adults went for a walk of over two miles for leisure at least once every four weeks.
Walking is three times as popular as its nearest competitor among physical activities, swimming, at 15% (National Statistics 1997).
891 million day trips for leisure in Great Britain in 1998 included a ‘walk, hill walk or ramble’. This is 15% of the total of all leisure day trips.
8% of all visits to towns, 27% of visits to the seaside/coast and 34% of all visits to the countryside include walking. 65% of all visits to woods or forests are people going for a walk. (National Centre for Social Research1998).
65.5 million domestic tourist trips throughout the UK in 2001 included walking for recreation as one of the activities undertaken.
46 million of these (70%) involved walks under 2 miles/3.2km (UK Research Liason Group 2002).
Walking is the second most popular activity for visitors to Scotland (Transport for Leisure Ltd Smith 2001).
Walking is the most popular activity for visitors to Wales (Wales Tourist Board).
7 million visitors walk in the British countryside every weekend (Countryside Agency 1998).
The popularity of recreational walking is rising.
44.5% in 1997 compares with 41% in 1993 and 38% in 1987 (National Statistics 1997).
Ramblers’ Association membership has risen from around 38,000 in 1980 to 111,500 in 1995 and over 140,000 today.
Out of walking trips for all purposes in 2001, 16% were ‘just to walk’, including walking dogs. This figure has risen from 12% in 1986 (DfT 2003).
Unlike most other physical activities, walking is popular with all age groups and both sexes.
The median age of adults who regularly walk two or more miles is 43 (National Statistics 1997).
Men are slightly keener recreational walkers than women: 48% of men walked over two miles every four weeks in 1996 compared with 41% of women (National Statistics 1997).
Women walk more overall: they made an average of 278 journeys on foot per year in comparison to 246 for men (DfT 2003).
Generally, people on higher incomes participate more in recreational walking than people on lower incomes, but as individuals poorer walkers tend to walk more often and further than richer walkers (Kay 2002).