The Lake District has secured the top spot for the most popular National Park after 278,000 walking routes were created in a year.

Data scientists at Ordnance Survey (OS) has analysed the last twelve months of routes data captured by users of OS Maps app.

Walkers, cyclists, joggers, and equestrians shared their routes while using the app, which has given valuable insight into where the nation spent most of its time in the last year.

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For the whole of the UK, there were just under two million walking routes created in the year with 1.2 million people creating circular routes and 800,000 walking from A to B.

There were 256,000 running routes captured, 156,000 on road cycling routes, 135,000 off road cycling routes, 13,000 horse riding routes, and 12,000 paddling routes.

Under 900,000 routes were captured in the 15 British National Parks alone proving just how popular they are.

The Lake District scored top for popularity among National Parks with 278,000 routes created, with Peak District second with 144,000 and Yorkshire Dales third with 73,000.

(Image: Ordnance Survey UK) Ordnance Survey's Managing Director for Leisure, Nick Giles, said: "The popularity for exploring the outdoors in Britain continues to expand year-on-year, which is wonderful to see, particularly with these new data visualisations we have produced – it’s always fascinating to see the routes alone with no mapping data underneath.

"Our aim has always been to make sure as many people as possible can enjoy getting outside in a safe, accessible way and have as much fun as they can. These illustrations, along with the routes data from OS Maps app that they are based on, are proof that trips out in the National Parks are one of Britain’s favourite ways to spend their leisure time.

"Over the past year we have made a number of enhancements that make using OS Maps easier, so it’s great to see so many people have been using it when out and about exploring the nation."

Lake District Routes Data Breakdown

In total, walkers created 278,467 routes. 

Out of these were:

Walking (230,539)

Running (21,705)

Off-road cycling (7,606)

On-road cycling (3,374)

Horse riding (225)

Ordnance Survey reports that this is the first full year where the Lake District has returned to pre-pandemic levels in terms of OS Map app users.