Wondering how your lawn size compares to the average size of a private garden in the UK?
Here, we’ve shared how big the average garden is in the UK, based on data available online. We’ve also looked specifically at different parts of the UK, and the average garden size in these parts of the country.
Note: We know that not all gardens have a lawn, but in this guide, “lawn” and “garden” are used interchangeably to refer to the private outdoor space beyond the back door of a home.
✅Key Takeaways:
The median garden size in the UK is 188 square metres (m²).
Scotland has the biggest median garden size (225.60m²), followed by Wales (192.80m²), then England (184.60m²).
Of all the regions in England, the East of England has the largest median lawn size of 212.40m².
Table of Contents
📏 Average Garden Size In The UK
According to Ordnance Survey (OS) map data from the Office of National Statistics, the median size of a private garden in the UK is 188 square metres (m²).
That’s about three-quarters of the size of a tennis court.
Keep in mind that this is the median size for gardens across the entire UK. Certain areas, like London, have a smaller median garden size because land is a premium and harder to come by.
We’ve shared the average garden size of different cities in the UK later in this guide.
🧐 Find Your Local Area’s Median Garden Size
Wondering what the median garden size is in your local area?
We’ve embedded the Ordnance Survey map below, which you can use to find out the median size of a private garden in your local area. Just enter your postcode and you’ll learn:
The median garden size for a house in your area
The percentage of dwellings without a private or shared garden in your area
🤷♂️ What’s A Good Lawn Size In The UK?
A good lawn size is subjective – it depends on how much space you need for garden furniture, sheds, and other outdoor equipment, as well as how much privacy you’re looking for and how close you want to be to your neighbours.
Generally, we’d say that a good lawn size in the UK is anything above the median size of 188 square metres. But if you personally prefer a larger lawn, this might be too small for you.
To some people, a small lawn might actually be best, meaning that they have a smaller space to maintain. It’s all relative!
Average Garden Size In England 🏴
The median size of private gardens in England is 184.60m². Over 17 million homes in England – around 97% of all homes – have a private outdoor space of some form.
Average Garden Size In Wales 🏴
The median size of a private outdoor space in Wales is 192.80m². That’s around 8m² larger than the median lawn size in England.
Over 1.1 million homes in Wales – around 96% of all homes – have access to private garden space.
Average Garden Size In Scotland 🏴
The median size of a garden in Scotland is 225.60m². That’s about 33m² larger than the median garden size in Wales, and 41m² larger than the median garden size in England.
Over 1.5 million homes in Scotland – also around 96% of all homes – have access to their own private garden.
Average Regional Garden Sizes In England 📐
Let’s look more specifically at the average garden size in the different regions of the UK (excluding Wales and Scotland, which we’ve discussed above).
London
The median size of a private outdoor space in London is 139.60m². That’s nearly 50m² smaller than the median UK garden size of 188m².
Around 98% of houses (excluding flats) in London have an outdoor space of some form.
North East
The median size of a private garden in the North East (including the counties of Durham, Northumberland, and Tyne and Wear, and a small part of North Yorkshire) is 150.70m². That’s around 38m² smaller than the average UK garden size.
Again, around 98% of houses in the North East of England have access to a private garden space.
West Midlands
In the West Midlands (including the counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands, and Worcestershire), the median size of a private garden is 195.40m². That’s around 7m² larger than the median garden size in Great Britain.
Around 97% of houses in the West Midlands have some form of private outdoor space.
Yorkshire and The Humber
The median size of a private garden in Yorkshire and The Humber (including the counties of West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire, and parts of North Yorkshire and Lincolnshire) is 178.60m². That’s about 10m² smaller than the median UK garden size.
96% of all surveyed houses in Yorkshire and The Humber have a private garden or outdoor space.
North West
In the North West of England (including the counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, and Merseyside), the median size of a lawn or garden is 159.40m². That’s about 29m² than the median UK lawn size.
Around 97% of all homes in the North West have access to a private outdoor space or garden.
East Midlands
The median size of a garden or private green space for houses in the East Midlands (including the counties of Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, and Rutland) is 203.90m². That’s about 14m² larger than the median size of a garden in the UK.
Of all houses surveyed in the region, 96% had access to their own private gardens.
South East
In the South East of England (including the counties of Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Surrey, and West Sussex), the median lawn or garden size is 212.20m². That’s about 24m² larger than the median UK garden size.
96% of the surveyed houses had their own private outdoor space or garden.
East of England
In the East of England (including the counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk), the median garden size is 212.40m². That’s just over 24m² larger than the median size of a garden in Great Britain.
Again, 96% of houses in the survey had access to a private garden.
South West
The median lawn size in the South West (including the counties of Bristol, Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly, Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire) is 209.60m² – around 21m² bigger than the median size of private gardens in the UK.
Of the surveyed houses, 96% had a private outdoor space or garden.
➗ What Factors Affect Garden Size?
Wondering why there’s a disparity in garden sizes across the UK?
There are a few reasons for this, including:
🏙 Urban Vs Rural Setting
Certain regions are more populated than others, and urban areas tend to have houses with smaller gardens than rural or semi-rural areas.
This often ties into the average house prices in your local area. For instance, space is at a premium in London because everyone wants to live there (thanks to the increased job opportunities and lifestyle benefits), so houses – and gardens – are typically smaller and cost more than they would elsewhere in the country.
🏡 House Size
Gardens are usually sized to be at least somewhat proportional to houses. Generally, the bigger the house, the bigger the garden.
If you live in a neighbourhood with lots of mansions, your local average lawn size will be higher than in a neighbourhood with lots of terraced or semi-detached houses.
👷 Property Development Decisions
The size of a garden ultimately comes down to the decisions of the person or company developing the property.
Depressing data shows that homes have “steadily reduced in size since the 1970s”, likely due to dwindling available land for building, and greed from property developers, who want to make more money by cramming more homes into a smaller space. It doesn’t take an expert to determine that if our house sizes are shrinking, so are our gardens.
📊 How We Gathered Our Data
Where did we find the data to support the facts in this article?
Most of the data came from the Analysis of Ordnance Survey (OS) data on access to private gardens in Great Britain. Visit the ONS Website and click the green “xls” button to view this data yourself. The survey was published in 2020, so while the data may have changed slightly, it’s likely to be very similar today.
We also used information from the Ordnance Survey map, which we embedded earlier in this article. You can view the map here.
We used data for the average garden size for houses only. Note that we haven’t discussed the average size of shared outdoor spaces for flats and apartments.
A note on median vs average: Average is calculated by adding up all the individual values and dividing this total by the number of observations, while median takes the “middle” value (with half the observations being smaller, and the other half being larger).
In the UK, there’s a small percentage of homes with very large gardens that bring up the average lawn size data, giving the impression that on average, gardens in the UK are larger than they actually are. That’s why we used the median, rather than average, numbers from the OS data to filter out the values that are skewing the results.
🤨 How To Measure Your Lawn Size
Want to see how the size of your garden measures up to the average garden size in your neighbourhood or region? You’ll need to determine the size of your lawn in square meters (m²).
If you have a square or rectangular lawn, you can work out your lawn size by measuring the length of the lawn (in metres), then the width, and multiplying these two numbers together. For example, if your lawn is 10 metres long and 5 metres wide, you’d multiply 10 by 5 to make 50 – meaning that your lawn is 50 square meters.
Check out our lawn size measuring guide for a handy lawn size calculator, advice on how to measure a circular lawn, and our tips on how to measure your garden size without a tape measure.
🏁 Final Word
Thanks for taking the time to read our guide on the average lawn or garden size in the UK. Hopefully you’ve found the information you were looking for.
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