Information on where individuals lived comes from Census 2022. The locations of health services were captured between 2025 and 2026. For this reason, the findings throughout this release refer to 2026.
Half of all households were within 12.9 km of a HSE Emergency Department, and within 10.4 km of either a HSE Emergency Department or a HSE Injury Unit.
In County Wexford, one in two households were 59.5 km or more from a HSE Emergency Maternity Department, while one in four were more than 75.0 km away.
Households were typically much closer to primary care services; half were located within 1.2 km of a General Practitioner (GP) and within 1.0 km of a Pharmacy.
Half of all individuals aged 25-29 years lived within 6.0 km of a HSE General Hospital, compared with 13.0 km for those aged 65-69 years.
Among women aged 30-34 years, half lived within 13.1 km of a HSE Maternity Department, compared with 17.4 km for the overall population.
Half of all individuals in the lowest income bracket lived more than 17.0 km from their nearest HSE Emergency Department, compared with 6.6 km for those in the highest income bracket.
Individuals who rented from a private landlord had the shortest distance to a HSE Emergency Department, with half living within 6.6 km. Among those who owned their home without a mortgage, half lived within 17.8 km.
One in four individuals living in highly rural areas without access to a car had over 8.2 km to travel to access a Pharmacy, and over 8.3 km to access a GP.
This release examines the distance households and individuals in Ireland must travel to access key health services. The analysis considers nine services: HSE General Hospitals, HSE Emergency Departments, HSE Injury Units, HSE Emergency Departments or Injury Units, HSE Maternity Departments, HSE Emergency Maternity Departments, Primary Care Centres, General Practitioners (GPs) and Pharmacies. Distances are calculated from both households and individuals to the nearest service and summarised using means, medians, 25th and 75th percentiles. Distance bands are also presented to understand the distribution of households and individuals from health services. This release advances a previous CSO release using 2016 Census data by analysing distances by personal characteristics, such as age and sex, general health status and income. Data on additional levels of geography are also provided; NUTS-3 Region, County, Administrative County, Local Electoral Areas, Type of Urban or Rural Area, Towns, Electoral Division, Small Area and HSE Health Regions.
The location of the various services were sourced from a range of providers, and further information can be found in the Glossary of Terms. While every effort was made to verify the accuracy of this information, responsibility for the maintenance of these data sources rests with the original providers.
This release was primarily concerned with measuring the distance to the nearest service. The accessibility or availability of care within those services lies outside the scope of this release. For further information, please see Background Notes.
Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.
Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (21 July 2026) published Measuring Distance to Services in Ireland 2026: Health Services.
Commenting on today’s release, Dr Sinéad McLoughlin, Statistician in the Social Cohesion and Sustainable Development Goals Division said:
“This is the first in a series of releases that looks at data from Census 2022 relating to the distance of individuals and households to key services. The aim of this release was to calculate the shortest distance by road from dwellings to a range of health services.
The release considers nine health services: Health Service Executive (HSE) General Hospitals, HSE Emergency Departments, HSE Injury Units, HSE Emergency Departments or Injury Units, HSE Maternity Departments, HSE Emergency Maternity Departments, HSE Primary Care Centres, General Practitioners (GPs) and Pharmacies. Results are provided at multiple levels of geography, including County, Administrative County (Local Authority), CSO Local Electoral Area (LEA), Small Area and HSE Health Region.
There are six results chapters in this release, with distance to services provided at a variety of levels of geography, age and sex, health status, income, nature of occupancy, and use of a car.
National Patterns
Clear patterns emerged in how far people must travel to reach different types of health services. Access to primary care was relatively uniform across the population, with one in two households located within approximately 1.0 km of both a GP and a Pharmacy. In contrast, distances to hospital-based services showed considerably greater variation. Nationally, the median distance to a HSE General Hospital was 10.5 km (meaning half of residential dwellings were within 10.5 km of a HSE General Hospital, and half were further away). The median distance to a HSE Emergency Department was 12.9 km. Maternity services were the least geographically accessible services of those examined, with a median distance of 16.8 km to a HSE Maternity Department and 19.9 km to a HSE Emergency Maternity Department.
Geographic Variation
Distance to health services varied considerably across the country. At county level, households in Roscommon, Monaghan, Leitrim and Longford were furthest from their nearest HSE Emergency Department, with half of all households in these counties at least 38.0 km away, approximately three times the national median of 12.9 km.
In highly rural and remote areas, the median distance of households to the nearest HSE Emergency Department was 40.0 km - around ten times farther than households in cities.
At Local Electoral Area (LEA) level, half of households in Bantry, West Cork, were more than 79.6 km from their nearest HSE Emergency Department, which was the furthest LEA mid-point distance. When distance to either a HSE Emergency Department or an Injury Unit is considered, the median distance was 17.1 km.
Age and Sex
Individuals aged 25-29 had consistently shorter median distances to health services than other age groups. For example, half of all individuals aged 25-29 lived within 6.0 km of a HSE General Hospital, compared with 13.0 km for those aged 65-69.
Among women aged 30-34, half lived within 13.1 km of a HSE Maternity Department. This was notably closer than the general population, of which half lived within 17.4 km.
Health
The Census collects information on personal health status by asking respondents to rate their general health on a 5-point scale from ‘Very good’ to ‘Very bad’. Across Ireland, distance to health services varied little by self-reported general health, with differences of approximately 1.0 km across all five general health categories. At county level, however, some differences were observed. In both Waterford and Limerick, individuals reporting their health as ‘Very bad’ had a shorter median distance to a HSE General Hospital than those who reported their health as ‘Very good’. The median distance was 6.2 km compared with 12.3 km in Waterford, and 4.4 km compared with 10.4 km in Limerick, meaning that those reporting ‘Very bad’ health lived approximately half the distance to a HSE General Hospital as those reporting ‘Very good’ health.
Income
Adjusting household income for the size and age composition of households allows the calculation of equivalised disposable income. Ranking this income from lowest to highest and dividing it into ten equal groups produces income deciles. Please see the fact sheet for information on how household income is equivalised.
Equivalised income data, calculated from administrative sources were included to understand whether distance to health services varied amongst those in different income brackets. Individuals in the highest income bracket, the tenth decile, had shorter distances to travel to reach their nearest regional health services, such as a HSE General Hospital or HSE Emergency Department. Half of the individuals in the highest income bracket lived within 7.9 km of a HSE Emergency Department, compared with 17.1 km for those in the lowest income bracket, the first decile.
Nature of Occupancy and Use of a Car
Distance to health services also varied by housing tenure. At state level, individuals who rented from a private landlord had the shortest median distances to health services, while those who occupied a rent-free dwelling had the longest. For HSE Emergency Departments, the median distance was 6.6 km for those who rented from a private landlord, and 20.8 km for those who occupied a rent-free dwelling.
At state level, individuals who lived in households that had a car lived considerably farther from health services than those without. The median distance to a HSE General Hospital was almost three times greater for individuals with a car compared with those who did not have a car.
In highly rural and remote areas, one in four individuals without a car lived more than 8.2 km from their nearest Pharmacy, compared with 9.0 km for those with a car. Similarly, one in four individuals without a car lived more than 8.3 km from their nearest GP, compared with 8.9 km for those with a car.
Exploring the Data
This release includes an infographic and a suite of detailed visualisations, including interactive maps, tables, and charts. While this release highlights key findings across a range of geographies and personal characteristics, it draws from a considerably larger body of data. All data provided are available in full at Data.cso.ie.
Median distances to health services are also presented at 1.0 km grid level via an interactive map."