Northumberland has the most parks per 100 children in the North East
With further heatwaves expected across the UK as we approach the summer holidays many parents will start to think about what they can do to keep their children entertained during this break, but are there enough free activities?
Intrigued by this, the experts at Polybound, a Rubber Crumb supplier analysed gov.uk data to find the total number of parks per local authority. The number of children in the local authorities was sourced from ONS, to eventually find which local authority has the most play parks per 100 children.
The results:
| Region | Total parks | Total children under 15 | Parks per 100 children |
| Northumberland | 2,586 | 51,795 | 4.99 |
| Gateshead | 1,148 | 34,862 | 3.29 |
| County Durham | 2,864 | 88,226 | 3.25 |
| Newcastle upon Tyne | 1,119 | 52,859 | 2.12 |
| Darlington | 410 | 19,879 | 2.06 |
| Redcar and Cleveland | 482 | 24,155 | 2.00 |
| North Tyneside | 699 | 37,346 | 1.87 |
| Sunderland | 870 | 48,932 | 1.78 |
| Hartlepool | 281 | 17,780 | 1.58 |
| Middlesbrough | 442 | 30,504 | 1.45 |
| South Tyneside | 386 | 26,748 | 1.44 |
| Stockton-on-Tees | 462 | 38,920 | 1.19 |
Northumberland has the most parks per 100 children under the age of 15 in the North East, at 4.99. This is 54% more parks per 100 children than in Newcastle-upon-Tyne (2.12) who have a child population (52,859) that is 1.5% larger than Northumberland (51,795).
Gateshead ranks second, with 3.29 parks per 100 children in the area. Despite having a population of children under the age of 15 (34,826) that is over half the size of County Durham (88,26), Gateshead is home to 1.2% more parks per 100 children.
County Durham ranks third, just narrowly behind Gateshead with 3.25 parks per 100 children in the area. According to ONS population data, there are 88,226 children living in the County Durham area, and 2,864 parks - the highest number of parks of all local authorities in the North East.
Sunderland ranks eighth - following a £200,000 investment
Sunderland ranks eighth, with 1.78 parks per 100 children in the area. Earlier this year, Sunderland City Council revealed there to be a £203,000 investment into upgrading play and urban games facilities at Hylton Road Playing Fields, East Herrington, Barnes Park, Silksworth Recreation Park, Grindon Lane, King George V and Thorney Close.
Methodology:
- The experts at Polybound sought to find the UK local authorities which had the most parks per 100 children.
- To do this, they scraped the listings of all parks per local authority, according to their gov.uk page.
- Population estimates were sourced from the ONS, and is the most up to date data published.
- The number of parks were then divided by the number of children under the age of 15, and multiplied by 100 to find the total number of parks per 100 children.
- Data was collected in September 2024 and is accurate as of then.