This publication calculates the shortest distance by road from residential dwellings to a set of everyday services and is based on a matching exercise involving:
This exercise uses an origin-destination routing algorithm, within a Geographical Information System (GIS), which identified the nearest location of a particular service along the official road network for over 2 million dwellings on the Census 2016 dataset.
An example is shown below in Figures 1 and 2 to explain the workings of the routing algorithm. Figure 1 shows the location of a residential dwelling at point A, and two points at B and C which represent a service, as well as the outline of the OSi road network. The routing algorithm identifies the nearest service to the dwelling at A, which, in the example is point B, and then plots the shortest-path route and distance between A and B (marked orange in Figure 2).
Figure 1
Figure 2
The analysis outlined in this study was primarily concerned with measuring the distance to the nearest service, and that the level of service at a particular location was a secondary consideration. The availability of better quality data would allow further analysis on the range of services offered at the various facilities covered by this publication. Also, access to online or mobile services were deemed to be outside the scope of this publication, although these services are becoming more prevalent.
The linkage and analysis was taken by CSO for statistical purposes under the Statistics Act 1993 and the CSO Data Protocol [1], and follows the international standard of statistical production outlined in the Generic Statistical Business Process Model (GSBPM) [2].
The data sources for everyday services used in this publication were selected if they were relevant, had nationwide coverage and were good quality. A list of locations for various services was identified, either on authoritative websites or through direct contact with certain agencies.
The final factor for selection was whether geographical coordinates could be obtained for these locations. In the case of the 2016 Census and for a number of data sources, geographical coordinates were already available but for the remaining sources the process of geocoding was applied. Geocoding is the linking of location information, represented as an address or Eircode, to a coordinate value. As a result, the addresses or Eircodes of locations offering a particular service were geocoded against the national address database, which contains the coordinates of over 2.3 million residential and commercial address points across the State.
It is important to stress that while efforts were made to check the data sources used in this publication, the responsibility for the maintenance of these sources rests with the providers who make their data available for public re-use.
Census of Population 2016
As part of changes to the fieldwork first implemented in Census 2011 and continued for Census 2016, each household and dwelling was linked to geographical coordinates. This linkage has the benefit of offering flexibility in the production of census outputs for both existing and new boundaries, provided they are available in digital format.
In the case of 98% of dwellings on the Census 2016 geography dataset, this linkage was achieved through using the national address database as the basis to conduct the enumeration of dwellings. The remaining 2% of dwellings enumerated was retrospectively digitised by census staff according to the location marked by enumerators on paper maps during census fieldwork activities.
Road network
The national mapping database (called PRIME 2) [3] is maintained by OSi and contains over 50 million attributed objects represented as either a point, line or polygon. Each object has a form and function classification which describes the physical form (e.g. building) and its use (e.g. residential, hospital, church etc.). There are over 1,000 different function types recorded in PRIME 2. OSi gives access to the PRIME 2 database to public authorities for free under the National Mapping Agreement [4]
The central premise behind PRIME 2 is the ‘skin of the earth’ concept where topologically consistent objects cover the entire surface of the State. These objects are grouped into five broad categories; Way, Water, Vegetation, Artificial and Exposed (non-vegetative ground such as sand and mud).
The road network used to produce the results in this publication are the centrelines of objects classified as ‘Way’ in the PRIME 2 database, and which has been simplified to international standards as Geographic Data Files level 2 (GDF2). A ‘Way’ is a generic term to describe all roads, streets, paths, and footpaths, while GDF2 are ‘Way’ segments simplified along certain parts of the network (i.e. around motorways, dual carriageways and roundabouts). There are over 300,000 distinct segments in the ‘Way’ GDF2 dataset, where each segment is a piece of the road network from one junction to the next. Each segment is seamless and forms part of a connected set of continuous segments with no unbroken lines or edges.
All road segments were treated equally, which means that the distances calculated by the routing algorithm reflect the ‘shortest-path’ route and not the ‘optimum-path’ route. The ‘optimum-path’ approach involves weighting the road network segments using additional attributes such as road type, speed limits, whether the road is one-way etc. It is intended to examine whether this approach can be developed further as part of future research.
In addition, the road network covers the jurisdiction of the State only. This may impact on the calculation of distances for dwellings along the border where using the Northern Ireland road network might be a more practical option for travelling to a particular service.
Services and infrastructure
The coordinates of the services and infrastructure used in this publication have been sourced through three options:
Banks
Addresses of individual bank branches offering cashier services from Monday to Friday were gathered from the following:
Bank of Ireland - Branch Locator
Allied Irish Bank - Branch Locator
Permanent TSB - Branch Locator
These addresses (as of March 2019) were subsequently geocoded against the national address database. Additional information was sought from the press offices of the main banks on the status of individual branches with regards to the type of service offered (cashier or cashless). Mobile banking facilities were not considered for this publication.
Fire Stations
The address lists of fire stations (as of June 2019) were sourced from each of the Local Authority websites and subsequently geocoded against the national address database.
Garda Stations
The addresses and coordinates of individual Garda stations (including 24-hour status) are available on the website of An Garda Síochána:
The data in this publication refers to Garda Stations which were open and had 24-hour status as of March 2019.
GMS contracted GP's
The HSE Primary Care Reimbursement Service (PCRS) processes payments to GP's, Dentists, Pharmacists and other professionals who provide free or reduced cost services to the public.
Under the General Medical Services (GMS) scheme, people who are unable to arrange general practitioner medical and surgical services for themselves and their dependants may be granted a medical card and receive free services. All GMS claims made by GP's are processed and paid by the PCRS.
A full list of GP's who submit GMS claims, along with their address of practice is available on the PCRS Online Services page:
List of GP's on PCRS Online Services page
The addresses on this list (as of July 2019) were subsequently geocoded against the national address database. Note that this list would include multiple locations for the same GP, all of which would have been included in this analysis, even though the GP might be sharing his or her time at these locations. It is also important to state that not all GP's participate in the GMS scheme.
HSE Emergency and Maternity hospitals
The addresses of public hospitals offering emergency and maternity care are available on the Health Service Executive (HSE) website:
In the case of emergency departments, the shortest-path analysis was performed on hospitals where adult emergency care is provided. The data in this publication refers to HSE Emergency and Maternity hospitals open as of June 2019.
Outdoor sports facilities
All objects with the following function types were identified from the PRIME 2 database: Polo ground, Athletic track, Bowling green, GAA pitch, Hockey pitch, Rugby pitch, Soccer pitch, Cricket pitch, Tennis court, Race track, Sports ground, Multiple use sports ground, Golf course, Golf links, Pitch and Putt course.
Note that the PRIME 2 database does not distinguish between publicly and privately-owned sports facilities. This data was extracted from the PRIME 2 database in April 2019.
Pharmacies
In order to open and operate, a retail pharmacy business (pharmacy) must be registered with the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland (PSI). A full list of registered pharmacies are available on the PSI website:
This list is updated every month, and the addresses from April 2019 were used for this publication.
Post Offices
A list of post offices active in July 2019 were supplied by An Post, after a request under section 24 of the 1993 Statistics Act:
Section 24 of 1993 Statistics Act
Note that any post offices temporarily closed at this time were not considered in scope for this publication.
Primary and Secondary roads
Access points to the primary and secondary road network as managed by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) were extracted from the PRIME 2 database using GIS techniques. This data was extracted from the PRIME 2 database in May 2019.
Primary and Secondary schools
A full list of primary and post-primary schools are available on:
Department of Education - Schools
For this publication, schools operating during the 2018/2019 academic year were included. The address and/or Eircode assigned to each school was used for geocoding against the national address database.
Public Libraries
The address lists of public library branches (as of June 2019) were sourced from each of the Local Authority websites and subsequently geocoded against the national address database. Mobile library locations were not considered for this publication.
Public Transport stops
Datasets for all national public transport operators are gathered and maintained by Transport for Ireland on the following website.
These datasets include coordinates along with extensive information about routes, trips and traffic frequency for each stop. Data is provided through an API under Open Data license in GTFS format (Google General Transit Feed Spec). The data used for this publication was downloaded in July 2019.
The coordinates of city bike locations are available as a publicly available API under Open Data policy.
Supermarkets or convenience stores
The addresses of individual branches connected to the main supermarket chains in Ireland were sourced from the following:
These addresses (as of February 2019) were subsequently geocoded against the national address database.
Swimming Pools
A list of swimming pools and their coordinates were supplied by Active Swimming Ireland in July 2019, following a request made under section 24 of the 1993 Statistics Act.
Section 24 of 1993 Statistics Act
Note that this list includes both public and privately-owned swimming pool locations.
It was possible to measure and categorise the frequency of services provided at each public transport stop because of the richness of departure times for public transport data. Using the methodology from a working paper by the European Commission Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO)[6], all departures from each bus stop, train or Luas station between 06:00 and 20:00 Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays) were selected and aggregated to produce a total number of departures for the week. This total was divided by five to produce a daily average figure.
Bus stops located less than 50 metres apart were grouped into clusters, in order to ensure that departures in both directions on the same route were taken into consideration. For each cluster, the sum of the daily average number of departures was calculated. For this publication, these clusters were considered as a single stop. In addition, all bi-directional departures at train stations and Luas stops were aggregated together to produce the average daily departures for each station.
Settlements, Urban and Rural Areas
The Census definition of an urban area was used in this report.
A settlement has been defined since the 2011 Census as:
An existing settlement can be extended if there are newly created estates or dwellings within 100 metres of the original settlement boundary. The delineation of settlements happens after the processing of census results. (i.e. every five years)
An urban area is a settlement with 1,500 people or more. Rural areas are defined as the population outside urban settlements and thus include towns with less than 1,500 people.
Counties and Cities
Under the Local Government Reform Act, 2001 (S.I. 591 of 2001), the areas formerly known as County Boroughs are now called Cities.
In Census reports, the country is divided into 31 administrative areas. Outside Dublin, there are 25 administrative counties and two Cities, i.e. Cork and Galway. In Dublin, the four local authority areas are identified separately. (i.e. Dublin City and the three Administrative Counties of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin)
The Local Government Reform Act 2014 Section 9 provided for the amalgamation of the city and county councils in Limerick and Waterford, and North Tipperary and South Tipperary County Councils. In this report, the newly amalgamated councils are called Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford.
The Local Government Act 2019 gave legal effect to the transfer of territory from Cork County Council to Cork City Council. This boundary change became operative on 31 May 2019. The data for Cork City and Cork County in this publication reflects the new boundary composition.
[2] Generic Statistical Business Process Model
[3] PRIME2 Client Documentation (PDF)
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