Travel time to the nearest school or hospital in EU

Eurostat has released a new version of the geospatial dataset on accessibility of healthcare and education services by road transport, with improved coverage and resolution.

The dataset helps identify communities with low or limited road access to healthcare and primary education services in 2020 and 2023. It assesses driving times to the nearest services using the census population grid (2021), now presented at an improved 100-metre resolution, together with road network data.

To provide a complete picture, this dataset combines information from existing registries maintained by public authorities across EU countries. It includes key service characteristics such as name, type, capacity, address and location.

Healthcare and education are essential services but they are unevenly distributed, which means that people need to travel different times and distances to reach them. Reliable information on geographic accessibility is required for EU regional policies, as well as for monitoring the UN Sustainable Development Goals.