New data on healthcare and education services’ accessibility

In January 2025, Eurostat released a new geospatial dataset describing accessibility of healthcare and education services by road transport. It aims to identify potential population clusters with low or limited road transport access to healthcare and primary education services. The census 2021 population grid at 1 km resolution and geographical data for road network were used to assess driving time to the nearest services in 2020 and 2023. The 2025 release follows the launch of a geospatial dataset describing healthcare and education services in Europe in 2023, which included their location. This dataset combines information from existing registries maintained by various public authorities across EU countries, such as health and education ministries, and presents the main characteristics of the services: name, type, capacity, address and location. 2 versions of the dataset have been released with 2020 and 2023 reference years. Healthcare and education services are some of the most important basic services, but they are irregularly distributed, resulting in 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.