96% live near a hospital, but only 40% near one with emergency care.

Studies on health care access often assume all hospitals provide the exact same care. In reality, a clinic cannot treat the same emergencies as a major facility. Researchers routed travel times along roads from hospitals worldwide to test how close people live to different levels of medical care. They drew travel-time zones around these sites and overlaid population data. While 96.2% of people live within an hour's drive of a hospital, that share falls to 78.5% for hospitals with emergency departments, and just 40.3% for advanced tertiary hospitals. Millions of people lack quick access to emergency services or any hospital at all. Treating all facilities as equal overstates access to time-critical care.

Why it matters

Global health maps often treat all hospitals as equal, but that hides a dangerous gap. Over a billion people live within an hour of a hospital but not one equipped for emergencies, and 312 million are more than an hour from any hospital at all. These numbers matter for disaster planning, ambulance placement, and understanding who actually has access to time-critical care.

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