City Nature Challenge

Past Years

See what happened across the UK in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.

What happened in 2023?

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The City Nature Challenge in 2023 was once again a collaborative event with 482 cities from 46 countries taking part. In the UK, 22 urban areas took on the challenge. You can see the cities that took part on the City Nature Challenge UK Leaderboard. The leaderboard also includes observations made across the UK, so not in the CNC participating areas.

Observations that are included are those made between Friday 28 April and Monday 1 May 2023. When collating the results the figures were taken as at 9 am, local time, on Monday 8 May in each respective country. The week following the event was to allow time for observations to be added to iNaturalist and the community to identify observations to the highest level possible at that time.

The UK tally* for the UK cities registered for the City Nature Challenge is as follows:

Total Observations: 78,854

Total Species Recorded: 3,797

Number of Observers: 2,610

(*The tally is declared straight after the CNC weekend and whilst the numbers will change as observations are added after the date and more species are identified, this is the official reported figure for observations, species and observers.)

Worldwide, the most commonly recorded species was Mallard. Garlic Mustard, Common Daisy and Herb Robert topped our tally.

Blackbird, Mallard, Robin and Wood Pigeon topped our bird list. The 7-Spot Ladybird, Garden Snail and Common Carder Bee were also commonly observed. The Orange-Tip was the most observed butterfly.

To view the results in depth and see the current, up to date numbers, the UK City Nature Challenge species list is available on iNaturalistUK.

You can view the collective results from across the world on the Global Leaderboard 2023.

What happened in 2022?

The City Nature Challenge in 2022 was once again a collaborative event with 445 cities from 47 countries taking part. In the UK, 14 urban areas took on the challenge. You can see the cities that took part on the City Nature Challenge UK Leaderboard.

Observations that are included are those made between Friday 29 April and Monday 2 May 2022. When collating the results the figures were taken as at 9 am, local time, on Monday 9 May in each respective country. The week following the event was to allow time for observations to be added to iNaturalist and the community to identify observations to the highest level possible at that time.

The official UK tally for the UK cities registered for the City Nature Challenge is as follows:

Total Observations: 55,871

Total Species Recorded: 3,434

Number of Observers: 1,849

Worldwide, the most commonly recorded species was Common Dandelion. In the UK this was the fourth most recorded. Garlic Mustard, Cow Parsley and Herb Robert topped our tally.

Blackbird, Robin and Wood Pigeon topped our bird list. Harlequin Ladybirds, Common Carder Bee, 7-Spot Ladybird and Speckled Woods were also commonly observed.

To view the results in depth you can see the UK City Nature Challenge species list on iNaturalistUK.

You can view the collective results from across the world on the City Nature Challenge website.