An assessment of the extent and types of greenspace of the NHS Scotland outdoor estate

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) builds on a previous publication, available from the Publications page on our website. It details the total amount of greenspace across the whole of the NHS Scotland outdoor estate as of November 2025 as well as for each of the 14 territorial Health Boards and 5 of the national boards (the other national boards being co-located at sites of other NHS boards). Amounts of greenspace, blue space, non-green, blue and residential gardens are specified. Greenspace is further broken down into seven subcategories including managed grassland, rough grassland, types of woodland and scrub.

This report is published in conjunction with a dashboard displaying site level data for the territorial boards belonging to the NHS in Scotland and associated land use types.

Main points

• The size of the NHS outdoor estate in Scotland is 1,563.96 hectares, this is almost the size of the city of Stirling (1,610 hectares) and approximately over 2,000 football pitches.
• The land within the NHS estate that consists of managed and rough grassland, mixed, different types of woodland, scrub and agricultural land is classified as 'greenspace'.
• Over half (51.65%, 807.738 hectares) of the total NHS Scotland outdoor estate is greenspace, almost twice the size of Loch Lomond Nature Reserve (430 hectares).
• Managed grassland accounts for 67% of the NHS Scotland estate’s total greenspace.
• More than 50% of NHS Scotland greenspace is within just four health boards.
• Seven health boards have greenspace coverage that exceeds 50% of their total estate area.
• There are only four health boards where greenspace cover is less than a third of the total estate, with three of these being national boards. Even for the health board with the lowest percentage, greenspace still comprises nearly one fifth (19%) of its estate.

Background

This report from Public Health Scotland (PHS) presents data on the amount of greenspace contained within the estate as a whole and at individual health board level. The data presented has been prepared by the PHS Geographic Information Systems (GIS) team. An interim report, published in October 2024, presented these early findings and outlined areas where further validation was required.

This final report now incorporates fully validated data from all NHS boards and includes an enhanced breakdown of greenspace types. Together, these improvements provide comprehensive and reliable baseline of greenspace across the NHS Scotland estate and form a stronger foundation for future monitoring and analysis.