This release, Measuring Distance to Services in Ireland 2026: Health Services, investigates how close or far away people in Ireland live from regional and local health services.
Distances were calculated using the Census 2022 dwelling location dataset, which provides coordinate information for all occupied households. Access to these data is governed through the CSO Data Hub, and only the minimum variables required for this project were used. Service locations were supplied separately and prepared in line with previous Distance to Services releases.
Shortest‑path distances were calculated from each origin (residential dwelling) to each destination (service location) using a routing algorithm based on the PRIME2 road network. PRIME2 is a topologically consistent digital model of the State containing over 50 million mapped objects, each classified by both physical form and function
For routing purposes the project used a network developed from Prime2 Geographic Data Files level 1 (GDF1), an international standard that represents the network as a series of seamless links between junctions. GDF1 is a notional line indicating the centreline of a Way or, in the case of a dual carriageway or motorway, the centreline of each carriageway. The GDF1 dataset contains over 300,000 links, forming a continuous and unbroken national road network. Factors used in the routing process include one-way routes based on Prime2 data and a value added by the CSO to control entry and exit from the network for origins and destinations. For example, a dwelling point cannot access the network using the closest road if this is a motorway or slip road, rather it must find the closest link that allows for entry and exit. The routing algorithm used shortest distance, meaning that distances reflect the shortest path along the network rather than an optimised route based on speed limits or road hierarchy. PRIME2 covers the jurisdiction of the State only, additional infill network was digitised to provide connectivity (examples N53 and N54), however dwellings close to the border may have shorter practical routes via Northern Ireland that are not captured in this analysis. Distances represent the minimum travel distance along the road network, not straight‑line (Euclidean) distance. The resulting distance measures were used to generate spatial statistics, including the mean, median, and selected percentiles.
Additional processing was required for islands. Each island was assessed to determine whether a road network existed and whether a ferry route was available. Official ferry route data were used for this purpose, and where no formal route existed, imagery was examined to identify likely landing points. Distances were then calculated according to the specific context: mainland- to-mainland, island-to-island, island-to-mainland via ferry, or straight-line distances where no road network was present. For ferry-based routes, the total distance included the road distance to the ferry point, the ferry crossing length, and the onward road distance to the service. For ferries, only routes available all year round were used. All results were compiled into datasets linking each dwelling to its nearest service.
Distances were validated against a third‑party routing API provided by the Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology, called Openrouteservice. 98.5% of distances differed by less than 1% from the in‑house OSM‑based calculations. 0.2% differed by 5% or more, typically due to factors such as service entry points or complex road layouts. In some cases, the reported distance in kilometers may be lower depending on the specific access point used by the external API.
This release is based upon Census 2022 data matched with income data from the Income Analysis using Administrative Data 2022, as well as data on the location of services from various sources. It is important to stress that while efforts were made to check the data sources for the services used in this release, the responsibility for the maintenance of these sources’ rests with the original providers who make their data available for public re-use. The list of services and how they were sourced are available separately, in the Measuring Distance to Services Glossary of Terms .
Where two or more health services are co-located at the same site, distances to each service may be identical. This is most likely to occur for hospital-based services such as HSE Maternity Departments and HSE Emergency Maternity Departments.
The linkage of household and individual data with externally sourced distance data and analysis was undertaken by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) for statistical purposes in line with the Statistics Act, 1993 and the CSO Data Protocol. Before using personal administrative data for statistical purposes, the CSO removes all identifying personal information. This includes the Personal Public Service Number (PPSN), a unique number used by people in Ireland to access social welfare benefits, personal taxation, and other public services. A pseudonymised Protected Identifier Key (PIK) is created by the CSO when the PPSN is removed. This PIK is unique and non-identifiable and is only used by the CSO. Using the PIK enables the CSO to link and analyse data for statistical purposes, while protecting the security and confidentiality of the individual data. All records in the matched datasets are pseudonymised and the results are in the form of statistical aggregates which do not identify any individuals. For further information see Administrative Data FAQ.
The 26th census since 1841 was carried out on the night of Sunday, 03 April 2022 in accordance with the Statistics (Census of Population) Order 2020 and in order to facilitate the EU requirements arising from the implementing legislation associated with Regulation (EC) No. 763/2008 on population and housing censuses.
The Census of Population Analysis (COPA) is a pseudonymised copy of the Census of Population 2022 dataset held internally within the CSO for analysis purposes. It contains Census attribute information for individuals and households of which 95% of records have a PIK which allows them to be linked to pseudonymised administrative data sources to create new analysis. All linked records are pseudonymised, and results are published only as statistical aggregates that cannot identify individuals. Distance results were linked to pseudonymised Census 2022 individual‑ and household‑level characteristics. Records with missing or invalid address information were excluded.
Personal characteristics included in this release were captured from COPA, and are outlined below.
Age is derived from date of birth (Question 3 of the personal questionnaire in Census 2022). Sex is recorded in Question 2, where individuals are asked whether are male or female.
Self-perceived general health is taken from Question 17 of Census 2022, which asks: “How is your health in general?”. Individuals rate their health on a five-point scale: Very good, Good, Fair, Bad, Very bad.
Information on long-lasting conditions or difficulties and type of conditions are derived from Questions 15 and 16 of Census 2022.
Question 15 asks whether the respondent has any of the following long‑lasting conditions: 'blindness or a vision impairment, deafness or a hearing impairment, a difficulty with basic physical activities such as walking, climbing stairs, reaching, lifting or carrying, an intellectual disability, a difficulty with learning, remembering or concentrating, a psychological or emotional condition or a mental health issue and a difficulty with pain, breathing or any other chronic illness or condition'.
Respondents may indicate: ‘No such condition’, ‘One or more conditions to some extent’, or ‘One or more conditions to a great extent’
Question 16 asks whether the respondent has difficulty with any of the following day‑to‑day activities: dressing, bathing, or getting around inside the home (self‑care), going outside the home alone to shop or visit a doctor (mobility outside the home), working at a job or attending school/college (employment/education), participating in other activities such as leisure or using transport. Responses include: no difficulty, some difficulty, or a lot of difficulty.
For this release, responses to Q15 and Q16 were combined into three categories:
Respondents who ticked any “Yes” box in Q15 or Q16 are included in “any extent.” Respondents who indicated some extent in Q15 or a little in Q16, but did not indicate great extent or a lot, are included in “some extent.” Respondents who indicated great extent in Q15 or a lot in Q16 are included in “great extent”.
For further information see Census of Population 2022 Profile 4 - Disability, Health and Carers.
A six‑category Nature of Occupancy variable was derived from Census 2022.
Household Question 2 asks whether the dwelling is: Owned with a mortgage or loan, Owned outright, Rented, or Lived in rent free.
Household Question 3 asks, for rented dwellings, whether the landlord is a Private landlord, Local Authority, or Voluntary/Co‑operative housing body.
Responses from both questions were combined to create a six‑level occupancy classification: Owner occupied with loan or mortgage, Owner occupied without loan or mortgage, Rented from a local authority, Rented from a voluntary body, Rented from private landlord or Occupied free of rent.
Household Question 10 asked how many cars or vans were owned by, or available for use to, any member of their household. Response options ranged from none to four or more. For analysis, this variable was recoded to a simple yes/no indicator, and classified as whether an individual had use of a car. Although this is a household‑level question, it is applied at the individual level in this release.
Household net administrative income is income from administrative sources such as employment income from Revenue and social welfare income from Department of Social Protection, after tax and social insurance has been deducted. Equivalised net administrative income deciles have been derived, which are calculated as a household’s net administrative income divided by the equivalised household size. Equivalence scales are used to calculate the equivalised household size in a household. Although there are numerous scales, we focus on the national scale in this release. The national scale attributes a weight of 1 to the first adult, 0.66 to each subsequent adult (aged 14+ living in the household) and 0.33 to each child aged less than 14. The weights for each household are then summed to calculate the equivalised household size. For further information on the income used in this release, see Income Analysis Using Administrative Data Sources 2022. Deciles of equivalised net administrative income from this dataset are utilised in this release: < €14,466, < €17,652, < €20,867, < €23,931, < €27,119, < €30,586, < €34,679, < €40,121, < €49,550, >= €49,550. Individuals who could not be assigned an income decile were excluded from income analysis.
Geographic and demographic variables refer to the Census reference day, 03 April 2022. Dates for the web‑scraping and collection of service locations are documented elsewhere in this release and span 2025 - 2026. All income data from the Income Analysis using Administrative Data (IAADS) dataset relate to the period January to December 2022.
The de facto measure of the population represents all persons who were present in the State on Census Night, irrespective of whether they were usually resident in the State at the time of the census (i.e. 03 April 2022). The de facto population includes persons who do not usually live in Ireland but who were in the State on Census Night. The usually resident and present measure of the population refers to all persons who usually live in Ireland and who were present in the State on Census Night. It excludes persons who were not usually resident in the State on Census Night but who were present and persons who were usually resident in the State but were outside the State on Census Night.
The population of people analysed in this report is restricted to persons usually resident in Ireland, enumerated on Census night in their place of usual residence, and living in private households. As such persons not usually resident in Ireland; those absent from their place of usual residence on census night; and persons not resident in private households are excluded from analysis.
From an initial population of 5,084,879 persons usually resident in Ireland and present on Census night, a total of 186,183 persons were excluded from analysis based on the above criteria in the Measuring Distance to Services in Ireland 2026: Health Services, resulting in a target population for this release of 4,898,696 persons.
With regards to the target private household population, this report considers all private dwellings that are usually occupied for household level analysis regarding distance to services. As such, the target household population includes:
This results in a target population of 1,875,946 usually occupied private households.
For more information on sampling and terminology utilised here, please see the Background Notes of Census of Population 2022 Profile 2 - Housing in Ireland.
This release publishes the distance to health services at several levels of geography.
National level estimates of distance to services.
The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) is the overarching framework for regional and territorial statistics in the European Statistical System. Ireland has 8 NUTS-3 regions, aligned with the country’s regional authorities. These were shaped by administrative changes such as the amalgamation of local councils under the Local Government Act 2014. For more information, please see CSO County and NUTS Regions classification.
The counties of Ireland are a sub-division of Ireland into twenty-six units or a sub-division of the island of Ireland into thirty-two units based on historic administrative divisions. While counties are no longer used for administrative purposes, they retain significant historical and cultural interest. They also closely align with current administrative sub-divisions (see Local Authority Area classification) and NUTS. Further information is available in the CSO County and NUTS Regions classification.
Administrative counties correspond with the Local Authorities, covering 31 city and county councils. For example, Cork County refers to the region administered by Cork County Council. In census reports, the country is divided into 26 counties/administrative counties and the five cities. Outside Dublin, there are 23 administrative counties and four cities: Cork, Limerick, Waterford, and Galway. In Dublin, the four local authority areas are identified separately: Dublin City and the three administrative counties of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin. For further information, see CSO Geographical classifications - national level.
A six-way classification identifies urban areas as Cities, Satellite Urban Towns and Independent urban towns. Rural areas with high urban influence, rural areas with moderate urban influence and highly rural/ remote areas. For additional information, please see Urban and Rural Life in Ireland.
For the purposes of Local Authority elections, each county and city is divided into Local Electoral Areas (LEAs) which are constituted on the basis of Orders made under the Local Government Act, 1941. Statutory Instruments 610-638 of 2018 and 6-8, 27-28, 156-157 of 2019 state the current composition of LEAs and their subsequent amalgamation into Municipal Districts. In general, LEAs are formed by aggregating Electoral Divisions. However, in a number of cases, Electoral Divisions are split between LEAs and in order to render them suitable for production of statistics, the CSO has amended some LEA boundaries to ensure that statistical disclosure does not occur. As a result of these amendments, Census 2022 LEAs are comprised of whole Census 2022 Electoral Divisions.
Electoral Divisions are the smallest legally defined administrative areas in the State. There are 3,441 legally defined EDs in the State. However, in order to render them suitable for production of statistics, the CSO has amended some ED boundaries to ensure that statistical disclosure does not occur. This has had the effect of amalgamating some EDs and splitting others. The amending of the Cork City and Cork County boundaries necessitated a redrawing of Electoral Division boundaries within Cork to ensure all EDs in the county were suitable for production of statistical data. For Census 2022, the CSO is publishing data for 3,420 Electoral Divisions.
For Census 2022, the Central Statistics Office introduced a new way of defining urban areas, Built Up Areas (BUAs). Where the word 'town' is used in this release, it refers to the BUAs with a population of least 1,500 persons. For more information about BUAs, please see Census 2022 Urban Boundaries and Built Up Areas.
Small Areas generally comprise either complete or part of townlands or neighbourhoods and are the lowest level of geography comprising between 50-200 dwellings. More information is available at Census 2022 Small Area Population Statistics.
There are six HSE Health Regions, each responsible for both hospital and community care under the national HSE system. HSE Dublin and North East encompasses North Dublin, Meath, Louth, Cavan and Monaghan. HSE Dublin and Midlands encompasses Longford, Westmeath, Offaly, Laois and Kildare. HSE Dublin and South East encompasses Tipperary South, Waterford, Kilkenny, Carlow, Wexford, Wicklow, and parts of Dublin South. HSE South West encompasses Kerry and Cork. HSE Mid West encompasses Limerick, Tipperary North and Clare. HSE West and North West encompasses Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon, Mayo and Galway.
There are 20 HSE IHA’s that nest within the 6 HSE Health Regions. For more details, please see HSE Integrated Healthcare Areas (2025) generalised (20m).
CST boundaries nest within IHA boundaries. For more details, please see HSE Community Specialist Teams (2025) ungeneralised.
96 CHN’s nest with these CSTs. For more details, please see HSE Community Healthcare Networks (2025) generalised (20m)
Mean, median, 25th percentile, 75th percentile, and the proportion of the population living within regional and local distance bands are reported for all services from CSO LEA geography and greater. The CSO has published an explainer video on median and mean: Mean V Median. Briefly, the median is the midpoint, or 50th percentile of the ordered values. The mean is the sum of all distances, divided by the number of households/individuals with distance metrics for each service. The 25th percentile represents the distance within which 25% of households or individuals live. In other words, one quarter of the population lives within this distance of the service, after excluding records with missing address information. The 75th percentile represents the distance within which 75% of households or individuals live, meaning that the remaining quarter live farther away.
Distance bands: Two sets distance bands were used in this release; regional and local. The services that fall under each of these bands are available in the Measuring Distance to Services Glossary of Terms.
Regional services use the following bands:
Local services use the following bands:
Table 9.1 illustrates the statistics available throughout this release.
| Region | Age and Sex | Health | Income | Nature of occupancy | Use of a Car | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Health | Long-lasting Condition or Difficulty | Type of Condition | ||||||
| Mean, median, 25th and 75th percentiles | Small Area, Electoral Division, CSO Local Electoral Area, Administrative County, County, NUTS-3 Region, Town, Type of Urban or Rural Area, HSE Community Healthcare Networks, HSE Community Specialist Teams, HSE Integrated Healthcare Areas, HSE Health Region |
CSO Local Electoral Area, Administrative County, County, NUTS-3 Region, Type of Urban or Rural Area, HSE Community Healthcare Networks, HSE Community Specialist Teams, HSE Integrated Healthcare Areas, HSE Health Region |
CSO Local Electoral Area, Administrative County, County, NUTS-3 Region, Type of Urban or Rural Area, HSE Community Healthcare Networks, HSE Community Specialist Teams, HSE Integrated Healthcare Areas, HSE Health Region |
CSO Local Electoral Area, Administrative County, County, NUTS-3 Region, Type of Urban or Rural Area, HSE Community Healthcare Networks, HSE Community Specialist Teams, HSE Integrated Healthcare Areas, HSE Health Region |
Administrative County, Type of Urban or Rural Area, HSE Integrated Healthcare Areas, HSE Health Region |
CSO Local Electoral Area, Administrative County, County, NUTS-3 Region, Type of Urban or Rural Area, HSE Community Healthcare Networks, HSE Community Specialist Teams, HSE Integrated Healthcare Areas, HSE Health Region |
CSO Local Electoral Area, Administrative County, County, NUTS-3 Region, HSE Community Healthcare Networks, HSE Community Specialist Teams, HSE Integrated Healthcare Areas, HSE Health Region |
CSO Local Electoral Area, Administrative County, County, NUTS-3 Region, Type of Urban or Rural Area, HSE Community Healthcare Networks, HSE Community Specialist Teams, HSE Integrated Healthcare Areas, HSE Health Region |
| Regional and local distance bands |
CSO Local Electoral Area, Administrative County, County, NUTS-3 Region, Town, Type of Urban or Rural Area, HSE Community Healthcare Networks, HSE Community Specialist Teams, HSE Integrated Healthcare Areas, HSE Health Region |
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