Star count results: 2021

The results are in for CPRE’s 2021 Star Count!

In February, we asked for your help to count the stars you could see within the constellation of Orion. Dark and starry skies are a special part of our countryside. Nothing beats looking upwards to see velvety blackness, with twinkling constellations as far as the eye can see.

Artificial light leaks from our buildings and roads, and this can affect your view of truly dark skies. We want to make sure that we can all enjoy starlit nights – and with your help we have been able to measure what effect light is having on our views of the sky.

Our 2021 national star count has been the best yet with over 7800 people taking part. And the results were pretty good too, with a significant reduction in the number of participants living with severe light pollution and with nearly 400 living in an area with a truly dark sky. There are all sorts of reasons why this might have been the case but surely the change in our nocturnal habits is one: we just haven’t been going out. But we should not become complacent. The government must now make developers, architects, planners, local authorities and all think about their designs for lighting and ask themselves, is it really necessary?

In Warwickshire, we had 106 people take part, up from 57 last year. Nearly 51% were living with severe light pollution compared with 60% last year – that’s not being able to see more than ten stars within the Orion constellation. Two people managed to see in excess of thirty stars and that was an improvement from 2020 when no one could!

For more information about the results of the Star Count and the interactive map where you can look at the area you live in, compare our region’s results with the rest of the country and even zoom in see the count you submitted, use this link to the National CPRE Star Count page.

If you were one of our citizen scientists this year, thank you for taking part!