Overview of drive times to services
The following analysis relates to estimated drive times to BreastScreen service locations for the targeted screening population. This can be described as the spatial accessibility of services.
Box 1: Data sources – in brief
Service locations: BreastScreen Australia sites providing screening mammography services to the general public. Includes only sites active from 2021 to 2024 (with 2024 data, anticipated), and generally only those delivering screening at least every 4 years on an ongoing basis.
Target population: The number of women aged between 50 and 74 years. This group is actively targeted to participate in the BreastScreen program and is represented here by the number of females of that age group from the ABS’ 2021 Regional population by age and sex estimates.
For further details, see Technical notes.
Based on the distribution of BreastScreen services and the target population, there is a high degree of accessibility overall:
- 94% of women (aged 50–74) live within a 20-minute drive of a service open at least every 2 years (3.4 million out of 3.6 million women).
- 99.8% of women live within a one-hour drive of a service open at least every 2 years.
- 92% of women live within a one-hour drive of a service open permanently.
First Nations women are more likely to live in areas with lower accessibility than non-Indigenous women, particularly in terms of permanent services:
- 89% of First Nations women (aged 50–74) live within a 20-minute drive of a service open at least every 2 years (73,900 out of 82,700 women).
- 96% of First Nations women live within a one-hour drive of a service open at least every 2 years (79,600 women).
- 70% of First Nations women live within a one-hour drive of a service open permanently (58,100 women).
Figure 2: The cumulative proportion of women, aged 50–74, by drive time to a BreastScreen Australia screening service location, by service frequency and Indigenous status
An interactive line graph showing the cumulative proportion of women living within a range of drive times to a BreastScreen service, in one-minute increments. Proportions for different service frequencies are shown, with fewer women living near permanent services than near services open at least every 2 years. The proportions rise quickly initially, with 89 per cent of women living within 15 minutes of a service at least every 2 years. Refer to Table S3 in data tables.