New data from the Central Statistics Office highlights the disparity between urban and rural areas in the distance people have to travel to access health services.
The figures show that the national average household distance from the nearest HSE (Health Service Executive) emergency department across 2025 and this year was 12.9 kilometres, meaning half of all households nationwide were within that distance, and half were further away.
However, in four rural counties (or, technically, county council-managed areas) the median distance was more than three times the national average distance from the emergency department.
These counties were, starting with the furthest counties, Roscommon (44.4 km), Monaghan (44.2 km), Leitrim (39.3 km), and Longford (38.1 km).
For maternity wards at the HSE, for which the national average distance was 16.8 kilometres, the average distance in these same four counties was more than double this figure.
The figures also show that HSE trauma units (which treat recent injuries that are not life-threatening and unlikely to require hospital admission) were the least geographically accessible in counties Donegal, Wexford, Mayo, Sligo, Kerry and Leitrim, with four households being at least 79.1 kilometers away from their nearest unit.
Under the contract, in Cork City and Dublin City, one in four households was within 6 kilometers of a trauma unit.
In County Donegal, all households were 75 kilometers or more from the nearest HSE trauma unit.
In terms of the average distance to also Emergency department or Incidence unit, longest median distances per county were also significantly present Rural countiesincluding the towns of Leitrim (38.2 km), Carlow (37.4 km), Donegal (34.8 km) and Longford (30.9 km).
Meanwhile, four provinces saw average distances to the pharmacy equivalent to four times the national average of one kilometre.
These were the counties of Roscommon (5.6 km), Leitrim (4.1 km), Monaghan (3.8 km) and Galway (4.1 km).
According to CSO data, counties with higher median distances also saw a wider distribution of distances.
For example, in Galway city, the median 50% of households (i.e. households that fell 25% on either side of the median distance) were located between 1.8 km and 3.7 km from a general HSE hospital.
However, in County Leitrim, the median 50% of the population was between 28.9km and 42.6km from a general hospital.
When the data is examined through the lens of geographic county (rather than local authorities), so that city councils are not counted alone, the pictures do not change much, with the same counties mentioned again.
Households in Co. Leitrim had the highest average distance to the HSE General Hospital, at 38.2 kilometres.
Counties Roscommon and Monaghan had the highest average distance to the HSE’s maternity ward, at 44.4 kilometres.
Families in Co. enjoy Roscommon also has the highest average distance to an HSE emergency department (44.4km), GP (5.2km) and pharmacy (5.6km).
In County Roscommon, 19.5% of people live within 10km to 20km of a pharmacy, followed by Counties Kerry and Mayo at 10.8%, Clare at 9.8%, Leitrim at 9.4% and Galway at 8.4%.
Taking a more local view, of the 166 local electoral areas (LEAs) across Ireland, ten had median residential distances of more than 40 kilometers to the nearest HSE general hospital.
These are: Belmullet in Co. Mayo (68.2 km); Carndonagh in County Donegal (61.7 km); North Conamara in Co. Gaulay (59.9 km); Arklow in Co. Wicklow (55.2 km); Donegal LEA in Co. Donegal (50.5 km); Glenties in Co. Donegal (49.1 km); Monaghan Lea in Co. Monaghan (45.7 km); Tallow in Co. Carlow (45.5 km); Gorey in Co. Wexford (44.4 km); and Carrick-on-Shannon in Co. Leitrim (42 km).
In general, CSOs note that rural households not only live farther from hospital-based services on average, but also experience much greater disparity in distance.
For HSE emergency departments, the median 50% range was 2.5 km to 6 km in ‘urban’, and 26.9 km to 55.2 km in ‘rural/extremely remote areas’.
For HSE general hospitals, the state average was 10.5 km, compared with 3.2 km in ‘cities’ and 33.1 km in ‘rural/remote areas’.
For primary care services, households in ‘cities’ had average distances of 0.7km to a GP and 0.6km to a pharmacy – slightly lower than the state average of 1.2km and 1km respectively.
However, in “extremely rural/remote areas,” these distances were approximately nine times farther.
