This chapter presents distances to nine key health services across multiple geographic levels, from State level down to Small Area. Because distributions of distance to health services are highly skewed - with a minority of households and individuals located very far from certain services - the median is used as the primary measure throughout, as it provides a more reliable indication of typical access than the mean, which can be disproportionately influenced by extreme values.
Unless otherwise stated, the statistics in this chapter refer to households rather than individual persons. See Background Notes for more information on statistics provided.
The median distance of households to the nearest HSE General Hospital was 10.5 km, meaning half of all households were within this distance of their nearest HSE General Hospital, and half were further away. The median household distance to a HSE Emergency Department was 12.9 km. HSE Injury Units, which provide care for minor injuries, had a median household distance of 22.0 km - nearly double that of HSE Emergency Departments. However, when access to either a HSE Emergency Department or an Injury Unit was considered, half of all households nationwide were within 10.4 km of at least one acute service.
Access to maternity services followed a similar pattern. The median distance to a HSE Maternity Department was 16.8 km, rising to 19.9 km for a HSE Emergency Maternity Department.
In contrast, households were typically located much closer to primary care services. Half were within 1.2 km of a GP, and 75% within 3.9 km. Similarly, half were within 1.0 km of a Pharmacy, with 75% within 3.4 km. HSE Primary Care Centres had a median distance of 4.0 km, with an upper quartile of 10.5 km, meaning that three-quarters of households were within 10.5 km while the most distant quarter of households were beyond this threshold.
The distribution of households across distance bands provides further context for these findings. Details on specific distance bands are available in the Background Notes. Just over one third (35.3%) were 'Less than 5 km' of a HSE General Hospital, while 75% were within 25.1 km. For HSE Emergency Departments, 28.8% of households were 'Less than 5 km' and 75% were within 29.8 km. One in five households (20.4%) were 'Less than 5 km' of a HSE Maternity Department, and 18.5% were 'Less than 5 km' of a HSE Emergency Maternity Department. More than one in ten households (10.8%) were located '50-<75 km' from a HSE Emergency Maternity Department, with a further 1.5% situated '75 km or more' away.
Additional data on proportion of households and individuals in regional and local distance bands can be found in our Data chapter.
For primary care services, the proportion of individuals living in residential dwellings located '20 km or more' from their nearest GP or Pharmacy was assessed. A total of 4,318 individuals (<0.1% of total population) were '20 km or more' from a GP. The number of people living this distance from a Pharmacy was approximately twice as high, with 8,337 individuals (<0.2%) located '20 km or more' from their nearest Pharmacy.
Administrative Counties correspond with Local Authority areas. Half of all households in Roscommon County (44.4 km), Monaghan County (44.2 km), Leitrim County (39.3 km), and Longford County (38.1 km) were located more than three times the national median household distance of 12.9 km from their nearest HSE Emergency Department. Half of all households in these same counties were also more than twice the national median distance of 16.8 km from their nearest HSE Maternity Department.
HSE Injury Units were least geographically accessible in Donegal, Wexford, Mayo, Sligo, Kerry, and Leitrim Counties, where one in four households were at least 79.1 km from their nearest unit. In contrast, HSE Injury Units were most geographically accessible in Cork City and Dublin City, where one in four households were within 6.0 km. When HSE Emergency Departments and Injury Units are considered together, Leitrim County (38.2 km), Carlow County (37.4 km), Donegal County (34.8 km), and Longford County (30.9 km) had the longest median distances to either service.
Roscommon County (5.6 km), Leitrim County (4.1 km), Monaghan County (3.8 km), and Galway County (4.1 km) had median distances to a Pharmacy over four times the national median of 1.0 km.
The distribution of distances was notably wider in Counties with longer median distances. In Galway City, the middle 50% of households, known as the interquartile range, which captures the distance between the 25th and 75th percentiles, were 1.8 km to 3.7 km from a HSE General Hospital. In Leitrim County, however, the same middle-distance group were 28.9 km to 42.6 km from a HSE General Hospital. See PxStat table MDSI14.
Examining the proportion of households within specific distance thresholds reveals further variation across services. In Donegal County, all households were '75 km or more' from their nearest HSE Injury Unit service. One in four households in Cork City and Dublin City were within 6.0 km of an HSE Injury Unit. In Wexford County, three in four households were more than 52.8 km from a HSE Emergency Maternity Department.
At County level, City Council and County Council areas are combined into a single geographic unit, in contrast to the Administrative County level where they are presented separately. Households in Leitrim had the highest median distance to a HSE General Hospital (38.2 km). Roscommon and Monaghan had the highest median distance to a HSE Maternity Department (44.4 km). Households in Roscommon also had the highest median distance to a HSE Emergency Department (44.4 km), GP (5.2 km) and Pharmacy (5.6 km).
At individual level, the distribution of distances to local health services revealed further insights into those living relatively far from a Pharmacy across Counties. In Roscommon, 19.5% of individuals lived '10-<20 km' from a Pharmacy. In Kerry and Mayo the figure was 10.8%, followed by Clare (9.6%), Leitrim (9.4%) and Galway (8.4%).
For the purposes of local authority elections, each County and City are divided into Local Electoral Areas (LEAs). For further information, see Census 2022 Small Area Population Statistics.
Of the 166 LEAs, ten had median distances of more than 40 km from residential dwellings to the nearest HSE General Hospital: Belmullet in Mayo (68.2 km); Carndonagh in Donegal (61.7 km); Conamara North in Galway (59.9 km); Arklow in Wicklow (55.2 km); Donegal in Donegal (50.5 km); Glenties in Donegal (49.1 km); Monaghan in Monaghan (45.7 km); Tullow in Carlow (45.5 km); Gorey in Wexford (44.4 km); and Carrick-on-Shannon in Leitrim (42.0 km). See PxStat table MDSI03.
The upper quartile distance was highest in Conamara North in Galway (76.2 km), followed by Belmullet in Mayo (73.9 km), Donegal in Donegal (65.3 km), Carndonagh in Donegal (65.2 km) and Kenmare in Kerry (61.3 km), indicating that one in four of the households in these areas live more than 61.3 km from their nearest HSE General Hospital.
For Bantry in West Cork, the median household distance to a HSE Emergency Department was 79.6 km, with one in four households travelling more than 94.1 km. When distance to either a HSE Emergency Department and Injury Unit are considered, this falls to a median of 17.1 km and an upper quartile of 26.6 km. Bantry also recorded one of the highest median distances to a HSE Maternity Department among all LEAs, alongside Belmullet in Mayo, Kilrush in Clare, Carndonagh in Donegal, Arklow in Wicklow and Ennistimon in Clare, all with median distances above 60.0 km.
The five LEAs with the highest median distance to a HSE Emergency Department or Injury Unit - all above 50.0 km - were Belmullet in Mayo (68.2 km); Carndonagh in Donegal (61.7 km); Conamara North in Galway (59.9 km); Arklow in Wicklow (55.2 km); and Donegal in Donegal (50.5 km).
For primary care services, which include GPs, Pharmacies and HSE Primary Care Centres, Buncrana in Donegal, Portlaw-Kilmacthomas in Waterford and Ballymahon in Longford had median distances of 7.9 km or more to a GP. Households in Belmullet in Mayo, Kilmuckridge in Wexford and Conamara North in Galway had median distance of 7.8 km or more to a Pharmacy. In several LEAs, 25% of households were more than 10.0 km from their nearest GP, with the highest upper quartile distances recorded in Buncrana in Donegal (15.4 km); Portlaw-Kilmacthomas in Waterford (12.7 km); Belmullet in Mayo (12.4 km); Ballymahon in Longford (11.2 km); Athlone in Roscommon (10.9 km); and Kenmare in Kerry (10.6 km).
By town, referring to a built-up area with a population of least 1,500. Carndonagh in Donegal had the highest median household distance to a HSE General Hospital, with 50% of the households further than 61.3 km. Kilrush in Clare, and Bantry and Skibbereen in Cork all recorded median distances above 70.0 km to their nearest HSE Emergency Department. The same three towns had a median distance that exceeded 70.0 km to a HSE Maternity Department: Bantry (75.4 km), Kilrush (74.6 km) and Skibbereen (71.9 km). Courtown and Gorey in Wexford had the longest median distances to a HSE Emergency Maternity Department, at 87.2 km and 84.6 km respectively.
All households in Abbeyleix in Laois, Kilrush in Clare, Youghal in Cork, Killorglin in Kerry and Gort in Galway were ‘20 km or more’ from a HSE Primary Care Centre.
Electoral Divisions (EDs) are the smallest legally defined administrative areas in the State. For Census 2022, the CSO published data for 3,420 Electoral Divisions.
Of these, Crookhaven in County Cork was the least well served in terms of access to hospital-based services. One in four households in the area were more than 110.0 km from a HSE Emergency Department (113.8 km), HSE Maternity Department (113.3 km) and HSE Emergency Maternity Department (113.3 km).
This section uses the six-category urban and rural classification set out in Urban and Rural Life in Ireland.
Median distances to health services increased progressively with rurality across all nine services, from the shortest distances in 'Cities' to the longest in ‘Highly rural/remote areas’. The interquartile range also widened with rurality. For example, for HSE Emergency Departments, the interquartile range was 2.5 km to 6.0 km in 'Cities' and 26.9 km to 55.2 km in ‘Highly rural/ remote areas’, indicating that rural households not only lived farther from hospital-based services on average, but also experienced much greater variation in distance.
For HSE General Hospitals, the State median was 10.5 km compared with 3.2 km in 'Cities' and 33.1 km in ‘Highly rural/remote areas’. For HSE Emergency Departments, the State median of 12.9 km rose from 4.0 km in ‘Cities’ to 40.0 km in ‘Highly rural/remote areas’.
Maternity services were the most geographically concentrated of the nine services examined. At State level, the median distance was 16.8 km to a HSE Maternity Department and 19.9 km to a HSE Emergency Maternity Department. In ‘Highly rural/remote areas’, these rose to 40.4 km and 45.9 km respectively, compared with 5.7 km in ‘Cities’ for both services.
For primary care services, households in ‘Cities’ had median distances of 0.7 km to a GP and 0.6 km to a Pharmacy - slightly below the State medians of 1.2 km and 1.0 km respectively. Distances to both services were also low in ‘Satellite urban towns’ and ‘Independent urban towns’, with median distances of 0.8-1.0 km. In ‘Rural areas with high urban influence’, the median rose to 5.6 km for GPs and 5.0 km for Pharmacies, increasing further in ‘Rural areas with moderate urban influence’ to 5.9 km and 5.6 km. In ‘Highly rural/ remote areas’, households were approximately nine times farther from primary care services than those in ‘Cities’.
There are six HSE Health Regions, each responsible for both hospital and community care: Dublin and North East, Dublin and Midlands, Dublin and South East, South West, Midwest and West and North West. Further information on the counties within each region is available in the Background Notes.
The median household distance to a HSE General Hospital was 5.8 km in the Dublin and North East Health Region and 7.3 km in Dublin and Midlands Health Region, compared with 24.1 km in the West and North West Health Region. The HSE West and North West Health Region also had the highest median distances to GPs (2.8 km) and Pharmacies (2.5 km), which was more than twice the national median for both services.
Additional data on distance to health services is also available by:
HSE Integrated Healthcare Area – See PxStat tables MDSI11, MDSI21, and MDSI31
HSE Community Healthcare Network – See PxStat tables MDSI09, MDSI19 and MDSI29
HSE Community Support Team – See PxStat tables MDSI10, MDSI20 and MDSI30
Small Areas were first published for Census 2011 following work undertaken by the National Institute of Regional and Spatial Analysis (NIRSA) on behalf of Ordnance Survey Ireland (now Tailte Éireann) and in consultation with the CSO. They are designed as the lowest level of geography for the compilation of statistics in line with data protection guidelines and typically contain between 50 and 200 dwellings. For further information see Census 2022 Small Area Population Statistics.
To view this interactive map please click on the image below. Please note due to the large amount of data, the map will take additional time to load. The data is available in PxStat Table MDSI01. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.
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