Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Irish people live 1.5km from a primary school on average. Shutterstock/NadyaEugene

The CSO has measured how far Irish people live from schools, bus stops and GPs

There is a large difference in distances between rural and urban settings for all services.

NEARLY 30% OF people in Ireland live within 5km of an emergency department, according to a new report from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

Ireland’s national statistics office published a new report today called Measuring Distance to Everyday Services in Ireland. It combined data from multiple sources to show how close or far away Irish people live from common facilities such as schools, GPs and public transport stops.

The report found that a bus stop was the closes public transport option for 93% of the population. For 5% of people, a train station is the closest public transport option.

One-fifth of Ireland’s population lives less than 500 metres from a pharmacy. Two-thirds of people live within 2km of a GP, while 4% live 10km or more away. 

Dermot Corcoran, a CSO statistician said the results indicated people in the counties of Galway, Donegal, Mayo, Leitrim and Roscommon had higher average distances to most of these services compared to other counties.

A large difference in distance can be seen between rural and urban areas. For example, a full-time operating garda station is 14.7km away from people living in rural Ireland on average, but just 3.7km away in urban areas. 

Nearly one-third of the population overall lives 10km or more from a garda station operating 24 hours a day. This figure ran as high as 70% in Galway county and 64% in Leitrim.  

info for cso Infographic on some of the statistics, CSO CSO

People live around 20km from their nearest A&E department across the country, but in Dublin city this stands at 3km. 

A secondary school is 3.8km away for the average person in Ireland and a primary school is 1.5km away.  

Over 400,000 people live within 2km of a Luas station. For post offices, 60% of people live within a 2km distance, but this figure can range from 97% in Dublin city to 29% in Roscommon.

Close
14 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Sarah Ennis
    Favourite Sarah Ennis
    Report
    Nov 27th 2019, 9:58 PM

    Now let’s measure the functionality and efficiency of these services, reliability of buses, availability of hospital beds in a and e’s Etc Etc

    145
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Perlum Sprite
    Favourite Perlum Sprite
    Report
    Nov 27th 2019, 9:57 PM

    Of course there’s a large difference in the level of services required. I can’t see that changing without imposing higher taxes, through property tax or a rural tax of some kind on those living in rural areas. That’ll never happen, and so we are left with the real problem.

    Low density living, caused in no small part by one-off housing in the middle of nowhere is not financially sustainable. We are too small a population, spread out over too wide an area to cope with demands. It costs too much.

    Clustering housing around towns is what they do in most of the rest of Europe. That would give us some chance of providing services.

    I’d love to live in a house miles away from anyone, and I did until my kids were born, but I can’t expect a level of service matching a large town or city.

    59
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Charlie
    Favourite Charlie
    Report
    Nov 28th 2019, 12:16 AM

    @Perlum Sprite: how dare you suggest that rural Ireland pay for anything. That will just piss off the fairy’s in Kerry

    18
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Lily Martin
    Favourite Lily Martin
    Report
    Nov 28th 2019, 9:49 AM

    @Charlie: great to see people perpetuating a stereotype, very helpful.

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Benny
    Favourite Benny
    Report
    Nov 27th 2019, 10:26 PM

    let’s also measure how far a FF TD needs to be away from their seat before another TD can vote for them

    46
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dave Hammond
    Favourite Dave Hammond
    Report
    Nov 27th 2019, 10:25 PM

    great comment Sarah , Ireland is really frustrating when it comes to this type of thing , we have statistics up the wazoo about many of the obvious things – what % live near etc – but really the useful data that can give some more meaningful insights to enable improvement in services are sorely lacking – we have all the buses allegedly on realtime app – but the phantom buses disappear when on route and in the case of my older parents the buses (very often) just don’t bother to make the turn into the estate at all leaving them waiting another HOUR for the next bus – it might seem like a small thing but not when you need to rely on the bus service for appointments etc. Need to modernise a LOT of the services in Ireland and using meaningful data can go a long way to informing those improvements.

    40
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dino
    Favourite Dino
    Report
    Nov 27th 2019, 11:26 PM

    @Dave Hammond: you see that littlr arrow beside the thumb after the comments? You can use that to reply to someone’s comment

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dave Hammond
    Favourite Dave Hammond
    Report
    Nov 28th 2019, 12:18 AM

    @Dino: do ya see that blue circle under my name – that means I’ve been 8 years using the journal and i’ve yet to see a more useless comment than yours.well done.

    29
    See 2 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Lily Martin
    Favourite Lily Martin
    Report
    Nov 28th 2019, 9:51 AM

    @Dave Hammond: sounds like he was trying to be helpful.

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Julie G Graham
    Favourite Julie G Graham
    Report
    Nov 28th 2019, 1:07 PM

    @Dave Hammond: Obviously wasn’t for you but maybe others starting off.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John O Brien
    Favourite John O Brien
    Report
    Nov 28th 2019, 7:15 AM

    Cso are after pissing away money on a totally pointless survey..

    16
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Lainie Ed
    Favourite Lainie Ed
    Report
    Nov 28th 2019, 9:52 AM

    @John O Brien: actually statistics like this are essential for those of us who work in planning and policy to evidence the need for development to be well located and that services and infrastructure should be developed in particular areas. knowing nothing about our systems and having no data to base decisions on is how we have gotten in the mess were in now.

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Julie G Graham
    Favourite Julie G Graham
    Report
    Nov 28th 2019, 1:09 PM

    @Lainie Ed: Biggest problem is we don’t ask those who might use the service; we presume if an elected councillor is consulted with, we are all represented but all councillors don’t represent the voters, some represent themselves only.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Christine Downey
    Favourite Christine Downey
    Report
    Nov 28th 2019, 3:20 PM

    Well I’m one of the 70+% that DOESN’T live within 5 km of an A&E

    2
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

Leave a commentcancel