New data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) highlights the disparity between urban and rural areas in how far people have to travel to access health services.

The figures show that the national median household distance from the nearest HSE (Health Service Executive) emergency department across 2025 and this year was 12.9km, meaning half of all households nationwide were within that distance, and half were further away.

However, in four rural counties (or technically, areas administered by a county council) the median distance was more than three times the national median distance from an emergency department.

These were, starting with the furthest, counties Roscommon (44.4km), Monaghan (44.2km), Leitrim (39.3km) and Longford (38.1km).

For HSE maternity departments, for which the national median distance was 16.8km, the median distance in these same four counties was more than twice that figure.

The figures also show that HSE injury units (which treat recent injuries that are not life-threatening and unlikely to need admission to hospital) were least geographically accessible in counties Donegal, Wexford, Mayo, Sligo, Kerry and Leitrim, where on in four households were at least 79.1km away from their nearest unit.

By contract, in Cork City and Dublin City, one in four households were within 6km of an injury unit.

In Co. Donegal, all households were 75km or more from their nearest HSE injury unit.

In terms of median distance to either an emergency department or injury unit, the longest median distances per county were also in largely rural counties, including counites Leitrim (38.2km), Carlow (37.4km), Donegal (34.8km), and Longford (30.9km).

Meanwhile, four counties saw median distances to a pharmacy at four time the national median distance of 1km.

These were counties Roscommon (5.6km), Leitrim (4.1km), Monaghan (3.8km), and Galway (4.1km).

According to the CSO data, counties with a higher median distance also saw a wider distribution of distances.

For example, in Galway City, the middle 50% of households (i.e. the households that fell 25% either side of the median distance) were between 1.8km to 3.7km from a HSE general hospital.

However, in Co. Leitrim, this middle 50% of people were between 28.9km and 42.6km from a general hospital.

When the data is examined through the lens of geographical county (as opposed to local authorities), so that city councils are not counted on their own, the pictures does not change all that much, with the same counties being mentioned again.

Households in Co. Leitrim had the highest median distance to a HSE general hospital, at 38.2km.

Counties Roscommon and Monaghan had the highest median distance to a HSE maternity department, at 44.4km.

Households in Co. Roscommon also had the highest median distance to a HSE emergency department (44.4km), a GP (5.2km) and pharmacy (5.6km).

In Co. Roscommon, 19.5% of individuals lived between 10km and 20km from a pharmacy, followed by counties Kerry and Mayo at 10.8%, Clare at 9.8%, Leitrim at 9.4% and Galway at 8.4%.

Looking at a more localised view, of the 166 local electoral areas (LEAs) across Ireland, ten had median residential dwelling distances of over 40km to the nearest HSE general hospital.

These were: Belmullet in Co. Mayo (68.2km); Carndonagh in Co. Donegal (61.7km); Conamara North in Co. Gawlay (59.9km); Arklow in Co. Wicklow (55.2km); Donegal LEA in Co. Donegal (50.5km); Glenties in Co. Donegal (49.1km); Monaghan LEA in Co. Monaghan (45.7km); Tullow in Co. Carlow (45.5km); Gorey in Co. Wexford (44.4km); and Carrick-on-Shannon in Co. Leitrim (42km).

In general, the CSO noted that rural households not only lived further from hospital-based services on average, but also experienced much greater variation in distance.

For HSE emergency departments, the middle 50% range was 2.5km to 6km in 'Cities', and 26.9km to 55.2km in ‘Highly rural/ remote areas’.

For HSE general hospitals, the state median was 10.5km, compared to 3.2km in 'Cities' and 33.1km in 'Highly rural/remote areas'.

For primary care services, households in ‘Cities’ had median distances of 0.7km to a GP and 0.6km to a Pharmacy - slightly below the state medians of 1.2km and 1km respectively.

However, in 'Highly rural/remote areas', these distances were around nine times further.