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Published: 19 April 2018

One-half of households have a health care centre under two kilometres away

One-half of households in Mainland Finland have a health care centre under two kilometres away from the dwelling measured along streets and roads. On average, the distance from home to a health care centre is 3.8 kilometres. The nearest pharmacy is at most 1.5 kilometres away for one-half of households. On average, the distance to a pharmacy is 3.4 kilometres. These data derive from the data of Statistics Finland's Household Budget Survey from 2016.

Distance from home to a health care centre based on the urban-rural classification of the area of residence in 2016, Mainland Finland (per cent of households)

Health services are clearly closer in urban areas than in rural areas. In urban areas, health care centres and pharmacies are, on average, around two kilometres away. In rural areas, the average distance to a health care centre and pharmacy is around seven kilometres. The public health care centres of Mainland Finland are included in the examination of health care centres.

Grocery stores are close by

The nearest grocery store is, on average, two kilometres away from home. The distance is the same as in 2012. One-third of households have only under one-half kilometre to the nearest grocery store. Nearly four out of five households have the nearest grocery store at most 1.5 kilometres away from their home. Here, the nearest grocery store refers to the self-service shop, supermarket or department store located closest to the household.

The nearest Alko alcohol shop is, on average, over five kilometres away. For one-half of households the distance to Alko is at most 2.2 kilometres.

Among cultural services, the distance to the nearest library from the household's dwelling is, on average, 3.2 kilometres. For one-half of households the distance to the library is at most 1.6 kilometres. In urban areas, a majority of households (67 per cent) live less than two kilometres away from a library. The corresponding share in rural areas is less than one-half (45 per cent) of households. Mobile library stops are not included in the examination.

The nearest post office is, on average, nearly three kilometres away from the home. The median shows that one-half of households are located at most 1.5 kilometres from the nearest post office. These figures apply to Mainland Finland.

Day care centre closer than comprehensive school

The distance to the nearest day care centre is, on average, 2.3 kilometres for households with children below school age. One-half of households with under school-age children live less than 750 metres away from a day care centre. The examination includes both public and private day care centres.

The distance to the nearest primary level comprehensive school is, on average, 4.1 kilometres for households with children aged seven to twelve. The distance to a secondary school is longer, on average, 5.2 kilometres, when examining households with children aged 13 to 16.

Distance data concerning all households are presented in the appendix tables.

Services nearby in urban and rural centres

Services are nearby in inner urban areas. The nearest grocery store and pharmacy are at walking distance, under one kilometre away. The distance to a library, health care centre and post office is, on average, slightly over one kilometre. The services are somewhat further away in outer urban areas. In peri-urban areas, the services are already several kilometres away.

Distance from home to main local services based on the urban-rural classification of the area of residence in 2016, kilometres

Area	Service
	Health care centre1)		Pharmacy		Nearest grocery store		Library		Post office1)
	Mean	Median	Mean	Median	Mean	Median	Mean	Median	Mean	Median
Whole country	3,8	1,9	3,4	1,5	2,0	0,8	3,2	1,6	2,9	1,5
Urban areas in all	2,3	1,8	1,8	1,3	1,0	0,6	1,9	1,4	1,9	1,4
Inner urban area	1,4	1,2	0,9	0,8	0,5	0,4	1,2	1,0	1,2	1,1
Outer urban area	2,6	2,4	1,9	1,8	0,9	0,8	2,1	2,0	2,0	1,8
Peri-urban area	5,0	4,4	4,7	3,8	2,8	2,0	4,2	3,2	3,8	2,9
Rural areas in all	7,2	3,4	7,0	2,8	4,5	1,8	6,1	2,5	5,4	2,4
Local centres in rural areas	2,4	1,9	2,0	1,5	1,2	0,9	2,0	1,6	1,9	1,6
Rural areas close to urban areas	8,4	6,2	8,1	6,4	5,3	3,4	7,0	4,8	6,6	4,7
Rural heartland areas	6,1	3,0	6,2	2,9	4,0	1,8	4,9	2,0	4,2	2,0
Sparsely populated rural areas	14,3	14,2	13,6	12,5	8,8	7,3	13,0	11,5	10,9	9,3

1) Mainland-Finland.

In local centres in rural areas, many basic services are also nearby, on average, one to two kilometres away. Local centres in rural areas include population centres located outside the larger urban areas, small towns and large parish villages.

In local centres, services are closer than in rural areas close to urban areas and in rural heartland areas. Rural heartland areas are relatively densely populated rural areas.

In sparsely populated rural areas, distances to services are considerable. The nearest grocery store is, on average, less than ten kilometres away, but the distance to a pharmacy, health care centre, library and post office is over ten kilometres.

The appendix tables show the distances of households to the following services: health care centre, library, day care centre, primary level comprehensive school and secondary school, upper secondary school, post office, letter box, ATM machine, food kiosk, restaurant, self-service shop, supermarket, department store, nearest grocery store, pharmacy and Alko.

The distances between households and services by road have been calculated for the sample of the Household Budget Survey 2016 using geographic information (coordinates). A total of 3,673 households were interviewed for the Household Budget Survey in the course of 2016.

Source: Households' consumption 2016, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Hannu Pääkkönen 029 551 3229, Juha Nurmela 029 551 2548

Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma

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Updated 19.4.2018