Parkrun at 20: 'Improving lives and making £667m a year for the UK economy'

New research published to mark parkrun’s 20th anniversary has revealed how it is worth £667 million a year to the UK economy as a result of improved life satisfaction for those who take part.

The research led by Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Sheffield and based on a six-month study of newly registered parkrunners showed that life satisfaction increased after doing as few as two Parkruns, with the greatest increase among those least active. Over 45,000 people who have registered for parkrun in the UK this year identified themselves as completely inactive.

The study, led by Professor Steve Haake from Sheffield Hallam University’s Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre, highlighted that the main cause of the increase in life satisfaction was through improvements to both physical and mental health which in turn led to increased quality of life.

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Prof Haake, who is is chair of the parkrun Research Board, worked on the study alongside Sheffield Hallam colleague Dr Alice Bullas, who is deputy chair of the parkrun Research Board, and Dr Helen Quirk of The University of Sheffield.

Parkruns take place every Saturday.placeholder image
Parkruns take place every Saturday.

The research was a follow-up study to research commissioned by parkrun and was funded by Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Sheffield.

Using the UK Treasury’s approach to the valuation of wellbeing, the life satisfaction increase for parkrun was estimated as at least £667m a year. Further analysis showed that every £1 spent on parkrun returned at least £16.70 in benefits to the UK, including £10 in healthcare benefits; making parkrun, which sees around 200,000 people take part every week, across more than 900 locations in the UK, around three times more valuable than other initiatives designed to increase physical activity.

Prof Haake said: “In the current environment where funding is scarce, our research shows that initiatives like parkrun can be cost-effective. parkrun overcomes barriers that stop people engaging in physical activity by using methods often seen in psychotherapy – it is at the same time, same place every week and is free to take part.

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“It also promotes strong friendships and more casual relationships, both of which are shown to improve mental health.”

Professor Steve Haake from Sheffield Hallam University.placeholder image
Professor Steve Haake from Sheffield Hallam University.

The research has been published as parkrun celebrates its 20th anniversary.

The parkrun charity provides more than 1,000 events every single weekend across the UK, in the hearts of local communities, completely free of charge. There are 5k events on Saturday mornings, and a junior 2k series for children aged 4-14 and their families on Sunday mornings.

The first ever parkrun took place with 13 runners and five volunteers at Bushy Park in London on Saturday October 2, 2004. It has since grown to a global community of more than ten million people, in 23 countries, at more than 2,500 locations.

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Chrissie Wellington, parkrun UK’s Head of Health and Wellbeing said: “Taking part in parkrun as a walker, runner or volunteer is incredibly beneficial to health and wellbeing, and this research shines a light on the monetary value of those wide-ranging benefits. With about 19,000 new parkrunners registering every week in the UK, we continue to expand our reach and impact, including to the UK economy. It is arguably the most impactful physical activity initiative the UK has seen in the last two decades.”

Last weekend saw parkrun’s 20th anniversary celebrated across the UK and the world, with communities encouraged to come together at their local parkruns in a celebration of the milestone on Saturday October 5.

The parkrun health and wellbeing study collected responses from 548 newly registered parkrunners in January 2019, with follow-up in July 2019. Respondents answered up to 47 questions about health and wellbeing at each time point.

Data from the 548 respondents was weighted to represent the 2019 parkrun population, while life satisfaction was seasonally adjusted to take into account the effect of the seasons (baseline was in winter where life satisfaction is generally depressed; follow up was in summer where life satisfaction is generally enhanced).

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Using the UK Office of National Statistics approach to measuring wellbeing, on a scale of 0 to 10 (where 10 is the best), life satisfaction increased by 0.26 from 7.49 to 7.75.

In comparison, this increase was around three-quarters of the drop in life satisfaction in the UK during the COVID 19 pandemic.

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