This publication is categorised as a CSO Frontier Series Output. Particular care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this release as it may use new methods which are under development and/or data sources which may be incomplete, for example new administrative data sources.
The results contained in this release reflect some of the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 situation. For further information see Background Notes.
At 68%, climate change was the main environmental concern of young respondents aged 18 to 34, followed by loss of biodiversity at 56%.
More than 60% of respondents aged 18 to 34 thought there was still time to act on environmental issues but it was unlikely to happen, while 34% thought there was still time to act and improve the state of the environment.
Those who felt they could do more to protect the environment said they would do more if they felt their actions really made a difference (54%), if there was more clarity on what an environmentally-friendly action is (38%), or if they could get more knowledge (37%).
Just over half of respondents living in the South-East (53%), Mid-West (52%), and Midlands (51%) regions invested in better insulation for their home to protect the environment.
Almost 40% of participants living in rural areas said they walked, cycled, or used public transport some of the time while 45% never did.
About 65% of those over 55 years old said they reduced their waste all the time or most of the time, while more than 45% of those aged 18 to 34 reported reducing their waste some of the time or never.
More than 85% of respondents aged 18 to 34 answered 'No' when asked if there were enough green spaces and biodiversity in urban areas.
Pulse Surveys are part of the CSO 'Take Part' Campaign. They are usually short and take the ‘pulse’ of the nation about an issue at a point in time. Pulse Surveys allow the public to get involved in the CSO's work so that your story can become part of the story, the story of Ireland. These types of survey ensure that the CSO can provide relevant, timely and insightful data for the public.
The 'Our Lives Outdoors' CSO Pulse Survey was carried out online from 22 April to 09 May 2022. It was open to anyone aged 18 years and over living in the Republic of Ireland. The online electronic questionnaire was available on the CSO.ie website and on all CSO social media platforms. This survey gathered 9,346 responses, for which the CSO wishes to thank all the participants who took time to answer this survey.
It is the third publication planned from the 'Our Lives Outdoors' survey. The results in this report reflect only the responses of those who completed the CSO Pulse Survey questionnaire. While results are calibrated to Irish population totals, the findings cannot be generalised to the entire Irish population, as the people who answered the questionnaire were not randomly chosen from the population. As the survey was online it will not represent views of those with no online activity. Outdoor activities are dependent on weather conditions. Some of the results presented in this publication will reflect this seasonal dependency. Even with these caveats, however, we believe that this report provides a valuable insight into our lives outdoors in Ireland. See the Background Notes for further details on the survey methodology. The CSO publishes results of Pulse Surveys as Frontier Publications.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (25 October 2022) released a third publication from the ‘Our Lives Outdoors’ CSO Pulse Survey. This survey was carried out online between 22 April and 09 May 2022, and explored the relationships people have with the outdoors and natural spaces in Ireland. This third publication presents more detailed results on the environmental concerns of the participants, as well as their actions to protect the environment. For further details, see the first two publications released in May 2022 'Pulse Survey April-May 2022 - Our Lives Outdoors: Snapshot of Results' and September 2022 'Pulse Survey April-May 2022 - Our Lives Outdoors: Spending Time Outdoors'
Commenting on the results of this publication, Sylvie Clappe, Statistician, said: "Respondents aged 18 to 34 years old were mainly concerned about climate change (68%) and loss of biodiversity (56%), while pollution of water was the primary concern of participants over 45 years old at around 60%.
Regarding the environmental issues that most concerned them, more than 60% of the participants aged 18 to 34 thought there was still time to act but it was unlikely to happen, while 34% thought there was still time to act and improve the state of the environment. Participants aged 70 and over were more evenly split on this topic, with 46% saying there was still time to act but it was unlikely to happen and 51% felt there was still time to act and improve the state of the environment.
Respondents who answered that they could do more to protect the environment said they would do more if they felt their actions really made a difference (54%), if there was more clarity on what environmentally-friendly actions are (38%), or if they could get more knowledge (37%).
When it comes to what day-to-day actions the participants engaged with to protect the environment, just over half of those living in the South-East (53%), Mid-West (52%), and Midlands (51%) regions responded that they invested in better insulation of their home. Almost 40% of participants living in rural areas said they walked, cycled, or used public transport some of the time, while 45% never do. Finally, respondents over 55 years old seemed more involved in the waste reduction than younger participants as around 65% of them reported reducing their waste all the time or most of the time, compared with 51% of those aged 18 to 34 years old.
More than 85% of respondents aged 18 to 34 answered 'No' when asked if there were enough green spaces and biodiversity in urban areas, compared with only 69% of those aged 70 and older. Nearly nine in ten participants (87%) who did not have access to an outdoor garden said there were not enough green spaces and biodiversity in urban areas."