Distance to banks with cashier services

Just over 2 million people, (43% of the population), lived less than 2km from a bank with cashier services (see Table 4.1 & Table 4.1a). This percentage increased to over 86% for people living in Dublin City (475,978 persons).

One in five people, (917,699 residents), lived 10km or more from a bank in 2016. The largest numbers of people living 10km or more from a bank were in Cork County (90,858), Galway county (81,026) and Donegal (71,194). More than half the people living in Leitrim were more than 10km from a banking branch, (see Map 4.10).

Post office more than 10km away for 70,000 people

Just 69,960 people in Ireland resided 10km or more from their nearest post office, or 1.5% of the total population. Clare, (at 5.6%), had the highest percentage living more than 10km from a post office, followed by Mayo (5.4%) and Kerry (5.0%), see Figure 4.2

Over 40% of Roscommon residents were 5km or more from a post office, the highest of any county, (see Map 4.2).

In contrast, six out of ten people in Ireland lived within 2km of a post office, although there were wide differences across the country, from 29% in Roscommon to 97% in Dublin City, (see Table 4.2 & Table 4.2a)

Three people in ten over 10km from a 24-hour Garda station

Nationally, 1.4 million people in Ireland (30% of the population) lived 10km or more from a Garda station operating on a 24-hour basis, as shown in Table 4.3, Table 4.3a and Figure 4.4.

Galway County (126,068 people) had the highest proportion of persons over 10km from a 24-hour Garda station at 70%, followed by Leitrim (64%), Donegal (61%) and Offaly (59%), (Figure 4.5).

Donegal, with 61,353 persons, had the highest percentage of residents 20km or more from a 24-hour Garda station at 39%, followed by Galway County (24%), Kerry (23%) and Offaly (21%), (see Map 4.3).

Distance to fire stations

There were 783,750 people, (16.5% of the population), who lived 10 km or more from a fire station, of whom 50,304 lived more than 20 km, (Table 4.4, Table 4.4a and Figure 4.6).

The counties with the highest proportion of people living 10 km or more from a fire station were Galway County (56%), Wexford (38%), Westmeath (35%) and Clare (33%), (see Map 4.4)

Distance to swimming pools, outdoor sports facilities and public libraries

Just under 3 million people in Ireland were within 5km of a swimming pool, or 62% of the population. The proportion of the population within 5km of a pool varied from a low of 28% in Cavan to a high of 100% in Dublin City. The highest proportions of people living 10km or more from a swimming pool were in Galway County (55%), Longford (53%) and Cavan (52%), (see Table 4.5, Table 4.5a and Map 4.5).

Three out of four people, (3.6 million persons), were less than 2 km from an outdoor sports facility, either public or privately owned. The highest proportions of residents within 2km of an outdoor sports facility were in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown (99.6%), while the lowest rates were found in Galway County (44%), Leitrim (47%) and Roscommon (50%), (see Table 4.6, Table 4.6a and Map 4.6).

Around 3.3 million residents, (or 70% of the population), lived less than 5km from a public library, while just over one in ten (557,197) lived more than 10km away. Wexford (38%), Donegal (34%) and Kerry (30%) had the highest percentages of population more than 10km from a public library branch, (see Table 4.7, Table 4.7a and Map 4.7).