Image via Outdoor Recreation NI

The People in the Outdoors Monitor for Northern Ireland (POMNI) gathers evidence and trend data through an omnibus survey relating to how people in Northern Ireland engage with the natural environment, the benefits they gain from it, and the barriers they face trying to access it.

Overview of POMNI

The People in the Outdoors Monitor for Northern Ireland is funded by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) and Sport Northern Ireland to support the work of the cross-government Strategic Outdoor Recreation Group (SORG). Outdoor Recreation Northern Ireland was commissioned to undertake this survey and partnered with 56 Degree Insight to make it happen.

The evidence and data provided in the report below comes from six waves of surveying the Northern Ireland adult population during the following months:

• November 2020 – 1,001 interviews
• December 2020 – 1,008 interviews
• March 2021 – 1,002 interviews
• April 2021 – 1,030 interviews
• August 2021 – 1,007 interviews
• October 2021 – 1,000 interviews

In total 6,048 interviews were undertaken providing robust data accurate to +/-1% at the 95% levels of confidence. When using the results, it is important to bear in mind that surveying was undertaken during the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic including periods of ‘lockdown’ when restrictions were in place which impacted upon levels of participation in outdoor recreation.

Information on the survey approach, fieldwork timings and how these related to different levels of Coronavirus related restrictions during each period of fieldwork are provided in the Appendix of the POMNI 2020-2021 Report.