Information on where individuals lived comes from Census 2022. The locations of Transport Services were captured between 2025 and 2026. For this reason, the findings throughout this release refer to 2026.
Eight in ten households (80.0%) were located within 2.0 km of a bus stop, while 68.0% of households were located within 2.0 km of a high frequency bus stop.
One in two households were located more than 1.4 km from a fuel station, with one in four households located over 2.9 km away.
Households in Leitrim had the furthest distance to travel to reach a fuel station, with one in two households located over 6.5 km away, and one in four over 10.7 km away.
Half of individuals aged 25 to 29 years lived further than 4.0 km from a high frequency rail stop, compared with 7.4 km for half of individuals aged 70 to 74 years.
In Highly rural or remote areas, half of individuals without access to a car were located within 0.7 km of their nearest public transport stop compared with 2.2 km for individuals with access to a car within their household.
Distances to transport services varied considerably across Counties and settlement types, with households in cities and larger urban centres living considerably closer to transport services than those in rural areas. This difference was most pronounced for rail-based and high frequency services. A consistent pattern emerged across most service types, with Counties in the Border, Midland and West regions, particularly Co. Donegal, Co. Roscommon, Co. Leitrim, Co. Mayo, Co. Cavan and Co. Monaghan, generally recording longer distances to transport services.
Households in Co. Leitrim households had the furthest distance to travel to access their nearest fuel station, with half of all households located more than 6.5 km away. This was more than four times the comparable national distance of 1.4 km. In addition, one in four households in Co. Leitrim were located more than 10.7 km from a fuel station.
For rail services, Co. Donegal stood out as the County with the greatest distances to a rail stop. Half of all households lived more than 111.1 km from their nearest rail stop, compared with 42.8 km in Co. Monaghan, the County with the second highest distance. Indeed, one in four households were located more than 136.5 km away from their nearest rail stop in Co. Donegal, reflecting the absence of rail infrastructure in the area.
Individuals aged 25 to 29 years lived closer to all transport service types compared to other age groups. For example, half of those aged 25 to 29 years were located 4.0 km from high frequency rail stops, compared with 7.4 km for those aged 70 to 74 years. This pattern is consistent with findings from the previous release examining distance to health services.
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 transport services varied amongst those in different income brackets. Differences by income bracket were generally small at State level, although individuals with the highest income tended to live closer to rail services. Half of individuals in the highest income decile lived within 4.2 km of a high frequency rail stop, compared with 6.7 km among those in the lowest income decile.
Analysis by nature of occupancy (e.g. owned, rented), showed that half of individuals renting lived within 0.4 km of their nearest public transport stop, compared with 0.8 km for those in owner-occupied accommodation without a mortgage.
Individuals without access to a car within their household had a tendency to live closer to public transport stops that those with a car. Half of individuals without access to a car lived within 2.6 km, compared to 6.6 km for those with access to a car.
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. Visit our open data portal, data.cso.ie, known as PxStat, to explore the data.
Median distances to transport services are also presented at 1.0 km grid level via an interactive map.
This release examines the distance households and individuals in Ireland must travel to access key transport services. The analysis considers nine services: ‘Bus Stops’, ‘Rail Stops’, ‘LUAS Stops’, ‘All Public Transport Stops’, ‘High Frequency Bus Stops’, ‘High Frequency Rail Stops’, ‘All High Frequency Stops’, ‘Fuel Stations’, and ‘Bike Share Stations excluding Dockless Bikes’. 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 transport 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 and Small Area.
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.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (28 October 2026) published Measuring Distance to Services in Ireland 2026 - Transport Services.
Commenting on today’s release, Dr Sinéad McLoughlin, Statistician in the Social Cohesion and Sustainable Development Goals Division said:
“This is the second 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 transport services.
The release considers nine transport services: ‘All Public Transport Stops’, ‘Bus Stops’, ‘High Frequency Bus Stops’, ‘Rail Stops’, ‘High Frequency Rail Stops’, ‘All High Frequency Stops’, ‘LUAS Stops’, ‘Bike Share Stations excluding Dockless Bikes’ and ‘Fuel Stations’. Results are provided at multiple levels of geography, including County, Administrative County (Local Authority), CSO Local Electoral Area (LEA) and Small Area.
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
At State level, half of all households were located within 0.5 km of their nearest public transport stop (bus, rail or LUAS stop), with three quarters of all households located within 1.4 km. High frequency public transport stops were defined as stops served more than 10 times between 6 am and 8 pm on a midweek day. Access to these high frequency transport services was more limited, with one in four households located over 4.0 km away from their nearest high frequency bus stop.
For rail services, median distances (that is, the distance within which half of households were located) were considerably greater, reflecting the more limited geographic extent of the rail network relative to the bus network, with half of households located within 5.5 km of a rail stop, but a quarter of households further than 15.6 km from this service.
Half of all households in Ireland were within 1.4 km of a fuel station, and one in four households were located more than 2.9 km away.”