Despite the country living offered in the Ballarat local government area, it ranked above only the regional Queensland town of Toowoomba.

Just 69 per cent of homes were located within 400 metres of a green space.

The data was released on the federal government’s new national cities performance framework website.

Ballarat was well behind Bendigo at 78 per cent, and metropolitan behemoths Melbourne, 76 per cent, and Sydney at 85 per cent.

Canberra topped the rankings with an impressive 99 per cent of homes within 400 metres of green space.

Ballarat City deputy mayor Daniel Moloney said there were historic reasons for the lack of space in some suburbs, but council had implemented a number of strategies to provide better access.

“The challenge is in established suburbs like Wendouree or Sebastopol, which are heavily asphalted and tightly packed in,” he said.

“It is pretty challenging for a regional council to be buying private parcels of land, because rate capping for significant capital purchases makes it pretty hard.

“That’s why it is a case of making better use of what we have got.”

Cr Moloney said cycling paths that connected suburbs and parks had already been built in some suburbs, with more one the way.

This included the Alfredton cycling trail, which has joined the city’s growing western suburbs with Victoria park.

Work has also been done on a cycling trail that will eventually link Miners Rest in the north, with Buninyong in the city’s south.

Developers in the city’s newest suburbs also have requirements for the amount of green space they include in the city’s west.

Cr Moloney said Public Transport Victoria was also implementing a policy to ensure every home was within 500 metres of a bus stop.

“We are lucky that we are still largely a 10-minute city, and it is relatively easily to navigate around,” he said.

“The other element is connecting people who don't have good park lands through good bike connections.

“That is something Melbourne does really well and we can learn from it.”