From national recreation statistics and mobile data to local estimates of recreational activity in Finland

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Differences in local recreational activity by methods in urban-rural classes_ Negative percentage values indicate underestimation and positive values overestimation of the local recreation activity_

Data source	Estimates for local recreational activity	Inner urban area	Outer urban area	Urban fringe	Rural area close to urban area	Local centre of rural area	Core rural area	Sparsely populated rural area
Permanent population statistics	Total annual activity (n, million visits)	242.2	155.0	84.4	31.8	54.3	73.4	41.3
	Average monthly activity (n, million visits)	20.2	12.9	7.0	2.6	4.5	6.1	3.4
Average monthly populations based on grid data	Total annual activity (n, million visits)	219.4	141.7	82.2	29.1	66.1	79.1	64.9
	Difference in activity during the whole year compared with permanent population statistics (%)	9.4	8.6	2.6	8.3	−21.8	−7.7	−57.1
	Activity in January (n, million visits)	16.1	10.3	5.7	2.1	3.9	5.1	3.2
	Activity in July (n, million visits)	18.3	12.0	7.7	2.5	7.9	8.4	9.4
	Difference in activity between January and July (%)	−13.7	−16.3	−34.7	−17.0	−105.4	−65.7	−196.0
Average monthly populations based on mobile phone data	Total annual activity (n, million visits)	200.7	140.2	79.6	30.7	61.6	78.6	62.2
	Difference in activity during the whole year compared with permanent population statistics (%)	17.1	9.6	5.7	3.4	−13.6	−7.1	−50.5
	Difference in activity during the whole year compared with the average monthly populations of grid data (%)	8.5	1.1	3.1	−5.4	6.7	0.6	4.2
	Activity in January (n, million visits)	13.1	9.4	5.2	2.1	4.0	5.2	4.0
	Activity in July (n, million visits)	17.6	12.7	7.6	2.8	6.6	8.3	7.9
	Difference in activity between January and July (%)	−34.0	−34.6	−44.2	−35.0	−65.8	−57.8	−97.7

Results from the regression analyses explain differences in local recreation activity between monthly average populations and average population in 2020 in mobile phone data (%)_

Variable	Difference in January, SAR	Difference in March, SAR	Difference in July, SAR
Population density (100 inhabitants/km2)	0.011	−0.030 *	0.036 *
Urban area (dummy)	−1.835 *	1.021	−8.077 ***
Sparsely populated rural area (dummy)	−2.175 **	−1.904	7.756 ***
Rural area close to urban area (dummy)	0.358	−0.919	−0.100
Local centre of rural areas (dummy)	0.371	1.230	−0.602
Water cover (%)	−0.067 ***	−0.104 ***	0.203 ***
Forest cover (%)	−0.042 ***	−0.008	0.037 *
Second homes from land cover (%)	0.222 *	0.028	0.804 ***
Second homes (%)	−0.009 ***	−0.012 ***	0.022 ***
Average value for zonation index	4.826 **	−4.781 *	1.238
Proportion of nature reserve from the total area (%)	0.057	0.064	−0.111 *
Distance to the city with over 50,000 inhabitants (km)	34.499 ***	47.828 ***	0.377
Distance to the city with over 200,000 inhabitants (km)	8.540 **	2.753	35.106 ***
Distance to the primary school (km)	−0.280 ***	−0.612 ***	1.140 ***
Availability of broadband (%)	0.032 ***	0.026 ***	−0.059 ***
Constant	−24.007 ***	3,334 *	12.513 ***
Lambda	0.074	0.081	0.103
Observations	13358	13358	13358
R2 (based on lm-model)	0.062	0.104	0.476
AIC	112690	118580	116580

Description of the variables used in regression modelling_

Row vector	Variable	Description	Data source, year
Category	Urban area (dummy)	Area belongs to urban area in urban-rural typology (coded as 1 if area belongs to category and 0 if not).	SYKE, 2018
Category	Sparsely populated rural area (dummy)	Area belongs to sparsely populated rural area in urban-rural typology (coded as 1 if area belongs to category and 0 if not).	SYKE, 2018
Category	Rural area close to urban area (dummy)	Area belongs to rural area close to urban area in urban-rural typology (coded as 1 if area belongs to category and 0 if not).	SYKE, 2018
Category	Local centre of rural areas (dummy)	Area belongs to local centre of rural areas in urban-rural typology (coded as 1 if area belongs to category and 0 if not).	SYKE, 2018
Land use	Water cover (%)	Proportion of water areas from the total surface of the grid.	CORINE, 2018
Land use	Forest cover (%)	Proportion of forest areas from the total surface of the grid.	CORINE, 2018
Land use	Second homes from land cover (%)	Proportion of leisure areas from the total surface of the grid.	CORINE, 2018
Land use	Second homes (%)	Proportion of second homes from the total number of residential buildings in the grid.	YKR, 2020
Land use	Average value for zonation index	Average value for zonation index in grid which indicates biodiversity value of the forests. The higher the numeric value is, the higher the biodiversity value is in the grid.	Zonation, 2018
Land use	Proportion of nature reserve from the total area (%)	Proportion of nature reserves from the total surface of the grid.	CORINE, 2018
Location	Distance to the city over 50,000 inhabitants (km)	Distance from the grid centroid to the nearest city over 50,000 inhabitants. Distance is calculated based on Digiroad (2018) network.	Own calculation, 2020
Location	Distance to the city over 200,000 inhabitants (km)	Distance from the grid centroid to the nearest city over 200,000 inhabitants. Distance is calculated based on Digiroad (2018) network.	Own calculation, 2020
Location	Distance to the primary school (km)	Distance from the grid centroid to the nearest primary school. Distance is calculated based on Digiroad (2018) network.	Own calculation, 2020
Infrastructure	Availability of broadband (%)	Proportion of the population with access to broadband.	Traficom, 2020
Population	Population density (100 inhabitants/km2)	Population density of area.	YKR, 2020