WalkablyIs Tartu walkable?
This page covers Tartu: 101,000 people.
In Tartu, the walk to public transport is the strong point: 3 minutes for the typical building, better than most of Europe. The walk to a place to eat is the weak point: 8 minutes for the typical building, about typical for Europe. Walking is easiest in Kesklinn (score 81) and hardest in Ihaste (score 40): a gap of 41 points.
The walk to eight daily needs
The typical walk is the middle value: half of the buildings in Tartu have a shorter walk, and half have a longer one. The words compare it with every place where people live in the 31 countries on the map, so the same minutes get the same word everywhere.
| Need | Typical walk | Compared with Europe | Buildings with one within 20 min |
|---|---|---|---|
| Groceries | 7 min | Better than most | 92% |
| Food and drink | 8 min | About typical | 79% |
| Shops | 6 min | Better than most | 90% |
| Health | 8 min | Better than most | 90% |
| School | 6 min | Better than most | 84% |
| Parks | 5 min | Better than most | 92% |
| Culture | 12 min | About typical | 73% |
| Public transport | 3 min | Better than most | 99% |
Compared with the rest of the country
The map is cut into six-sided cells 55 m across, and every cell that a street passes through gets a score: we call these street cells. We sort all 956,680 street cells in Estonia from hardest to easiest to walk, then cut the list into five equal groups, called fifths. In Tartu, 59% of the street cells are in the most walkable fifth, more than the 20% of an average place.
| Fifth of the street cells in Estonia | Bar | Tartu |
|---|---|---|
| Most walkable fifth | 59% | |
| Second fifth | 7% | |
| Middle fifth | 8% | |
| Fourth fifth | 12% | |
| Lowest-scoring fifth | 14% |
The city at a glance
On the map, click any street to see its score and the walk to each need.
Most walkable and least served areas
Each street cell takes the name of the nearest neighbourhood, village or town on OpenStreetMap, up to 1.5 km away. We rank the 13 areas where people live: each has at least 200 street cells and 371 buildings, and at least a quarter as many buildings per street cell as Tartu as a whole, so ports, hill parks and farmland drop out. Click a name to open it on the map.
Even Ihaste, the area least served by daily needs on foot here, has 74% of its street cells in the most walkable fifth in Estonia. Tartu walks far better than most of the country, so even its lowest-ranked areas beat most other places.
Most walkable
| Area | Typical score | In the top fifth |
|---|---|---|
| 81 | 100% | |
| 77 | 100% | |
| 72 | 94% | |
| 71 | 100% | |
| 68 | 97% |
Fewest daily needs within a walk
| Area | Typical score | In the top fifth |
|---|---|---|
| 40 | 74% | |
| 43 | 74% | |
| 46 | 81% | |
| 50 | 95% | |
| 56 | 100% |
The score measures walks to eight daily needs and pleasant streets, not people, safety, crime or income. If you think a score is wrong, write to [email protected] and we will check and correct it.
Cities like Tartu
These three cities come closest to Tartu in number of people and typical score, from any of the 31 countries. Tartu has the same score as 2 of them and a higher score than 1.
| City | Country | People | Typical score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gravesham | United Kingdom | 106,000 | 62 |
| Bergisch Gladbach | Germany | 111,000 | 62 |
| Woking | United Kingdom | 101,000 | 60 |
What this page covers
This page uses the boundary of Tartu as Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, draws it. About 101,000 people live there (2025 figure). Inside it we scored 7,514 street cells with 24,246 buildings in them.
Every number here comes from the same scores as the map. The score runs from 0 to 100. The walk to eight daily needs on real streets makes up 60% of it, and how pleasant the streets are makes up 40%. The comparison with Europe counts every place by its buildings, 194,990,696 buildings in all. How the score works.