Highlights

• Fair access to green spaces with varying qualities was analyzed in Finland.

• Most of the Finnish urban population lives within 300 m from any green space.

• Large green areas and forests were more accessible to high SES areas.

• Green areas with facilities and routes were more accessible to low SES areas.

• Quality of green spaces should be better considered in accessibility analyses.

Abstract

Ensuring fair access to urban green spaces is a constant challenge for planning in densifying cities. Moreover, the quality of green spaces that determines their usability is often insufficiently considered in accessibility research. We examined residents’ accessibility to different types of green spaces also by neighborhood-level socioeconomic status (SES) in the seven largest urban regions in Finland. We identified eight different green space types, and high and low SES neighborhoods using income, education, and unemployment rate. We calculated network-based accessibility to the different types of green spaces and compared areas with a high and low SES using ANOVA. 90% of the urban residents lived within 300 meters of any green space. However, inclusion of the quality factors decreased accessibility of the green spaces from 34% to 75%. Residents living in high and low SES areas had different quality features in their nearest green spaces. Recreation facilities and routes were closer to low SES areas, whereas areas of high SES were associated with better accessibility to large green areas, and forests. This pattern recurred in most individual cities with varying distance differences. Our results emphasize the importance of considering the quality of green spaces in urban planning.