Evidence suggests that residential nature, e.g., greenness around the home, and nature-based recreation, e.g., visits to specific natural locations, are beneficial for health and well-being. However, several studies report that residential access is lower among socio-economically disadvantaged communities, potentially exacerbating health inequalities. We explored this issue in Austria, a relatively rural and mountainous country that also contains several cities, including the capital Vienna with around 2 million citizens. Data were drawn from a representative survey of the adult population across all nine Austrian regions (N = 2258) and explored socio-demographic predictors of residential green and blue space (using satellite data on surrounding greenness and distance to rivers and lakes), and visit frequencies to 12 different urban and rural green/blue environments. In contrast to most findings elsewhere, which usually focus on relatively specific locations (e.g., cities), we found little evidence of socio-economic inequalities in residential green/blue space at the whole country level. Further, although frequent visits to specific environments were less likely among, e.g., people with lower vs. higher education, other typically disadvantaged groups, e.g., those self-identifying as belonging vs. not belonging to an ethnic minority, reported more visits to e.g., urban parks and rivers. Findings suggest that inequalities in nature exposure may not be universal when considered at a country level.

有证据表明，居住的自然环境（例如，家庭周围的绿色环境）和基于自然的娱乐活动（例如，参观特定的自然地点）有益于健康和福祉。然而，一些研究报告说，社会经济弱势社区的住宅接入率较低，这可能会加剧健康不平等。我们在奥地利探讨了这个问题，这是一个相对乡村和山区的国家，也有几个城市，包括拥有约 200 万公民的首都维也纳。数据来自对奥地利所有九个地区的成年人口的代表性调查（N= 2258) 并探索住宅绿色和蓝色空间的社会人口预测因素（使用关于周围绿色和与河流和湖泊距离的卫星数据），以及访问 12 种不同城市和农村绿色/蓝色环境的频率。与通常侧重于相对特定位置（例如城市）的其他地方的大多数调查结果相反，我们几乎没有发现全国范围内住宅绿色/蓝色空间存在社会经济不平等的证据。此外，虽然经常访问特定环境的可能性较小，例如，受教育程度较低的人与受过高等教育的人相比，其他典型的弱势群体，例如那些自我认同为属于或不属于少数民族的人，报告了更多的访问，例如、城市公园和河流。