Title page
Contents
OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 3
Acknowledgements 4
1. Introduction 8
2. Related literature 10
3. Service coverage and data 12
3.1. Service coverage 12
3.2. Data sources and country coverage 13
4. Methodology 16
5. How accessible are essential services in OECD regions? 20
5.1. For all services, accessibility is high for a large part of the population 20
5.2. For some people, travel times to reach essential services can be quite long 24
5.3. Having access to a motor vehicle may crucially impact inequalities in accessibility 26
5.4. Accessibility is higher in metropolitan than in non-metropolitan regions, but there can be large differences among regions with a similar level of access to cities 29
6. What demographic and economic characteristics are associated with higher service accessibility? 33
6.1. Services are systematically less accessible in lower-income regions 34
6.2. The potential number of users alone is not systematically associated with better services accessibility 35
6.3. Service accessibility significantly relates to regional income, access to cities and demand indicators, even after controlling for other regional characteristics 38
7. Concluding remarks 41
References 43
Annex A. Overview of data sources 48
Annex B. Additional figures 52
Table 1. Country coverage and definitions 14
Table 2. Correlations between the share of people who can reach the nearest service facility within 15 minutes and regional characteristics 40
Figure 1. Driving times to nearest PES centre in Central Estonia 17
Figure 2. Regional distributions of driving times to nearest PES centre, in Estonia 18
Figure 3. Isochrone polygons for PES centres in Estonia 19
Figure 4. PES centres are within a short driving time for the median person, in most regions 21
Figure 5. Primary schools and ECEC centres can be reached by foot by the median person, in most regions 22
Figure 6. Walking times to nurseries are lower than to kindergartens for the median person in Belgium 24
Figure 7. Walking to the nearest primary school and ECEC centre can be unfeasible for many people, in most countries 25
Figure 8. Regions can differ significantly in the accessibility they provide to those that are less well served 26
Figure 9. Driving times to the nearest primary school and ECEC centre are short in all regions, while walking may be unfeasible in some regions 27
Figure 10. In Ireland, as in all countries, disparities between driving and walking times are higher for the less well served 28
Figure 11. Driving times to PES centres decrease with the degree of access to cities, but the extent differs significantly across countries 29
Figure 12. Dispersion in walking times to primary schools and ECEC centres for the median person is generally low among metropolitan regions,... 31
Figure 13. Driving times to the nearest PES centre differ for similar regions with the same level of access to cities 32
Figure 14. PES centres are systematically less accessible in lower-income regions 34
Figure 15. PES accessibility does not vary systematically with regional unemployment levels 36
Figure 16. Primary schools and ECEC centres are generally more accessible in regions with a greater share of children, but not in all countries 37
Boxes
Box 1. Classification of small (TL3) regions by level of access to cities 19
Box 2. A spotlight on the accessibility of nurseries and kindergartens in Belgium 23
Annex Tables
Table A.1. Data sources for PES 48
Table A.2. Data sources for ECEC 50
Table A.3. Data sources for primary schools 51
Annex Figures
Figure A B.1. Primary schools and ECEC centres are systematically less accessible in lower-income regions 52
Figure A B.2. Service accessibility is not systematically associated with economic growth 54