The United Nations specified the need for “providing universal access to greenspace for urban residents” in the 11th Sustainable Development Goal. Yet, how far we are from this goal remains unclear. Here, we develop a methodology incorporating fine-resolution population and greenspace mappings and use the results for 2020 to elucidate global differences in human exposure to greenspace. We identify a contrasting difference of greenspace exposure between Global South and North cities. Global South cities experience only one third of the greenspace exposure level of Global North cities. Greenspace exposure inequality (Gini: 0.47) in Global South cities is nearly twice that of Global North cities (Gini: 0.27). We quantify that 22% of the spatial disparity is associated with greenspace provision, and 53% is associated with joint effects of greenspace provision and spatial configuration. These findings highlight the need for prioritizing greening policies to mitigate environmental disparity and achieve sustainable development goals.

联合国在第 11 个可持续发展目标中明确了“为城市居民提供普遍使用绿地”的必要性。然而，我们离这个目标还有多远仍不清楚。在这里，我们开发了一种结合高分辨率人口和绿地映射的方法，并使用 2020 年的结果来阐明人类在绿地暴露方面的全球差异。我们确定了全球南方和北方城市之间的绿地暴露的对比差异。全球南方城市的绿地暴露水平只有全球北方城市的三分之一。全球南方城市的绿地暴露不平等（基尼：0.47）几乎是全球北方城市（基尼：0.27）的两倍。我们量化了 22% 的空间差异与绿地供应有关，53% 与绿地提供和空间配置的联合影响有关。这些发现强调了优先考虑绿化政策以减轻环境差距和实现可持续发展目标的必要性。