Department of Health

Geo-locating your nearest pharmacy

The UK’s Department of Health commissioned Geofutures to analyse the spatial distribution of pharmacies in the UK, with particular focus on their prevalence in town centre and out-of-town locations.

The input of pharmacy data into a mapping context was followed by analysis using extracts from ODPM’s town centres statistics, breaking down the geographical distribution of pharmacies further into town centres, district and local centres, areas within 250m of the town centre and off-centre locations; the locations of pharmacies within supermarkets could also be accurately mapped.

Such a locational analysis can readily be applied to other services, linking them with other geographic and socio-economic factors to visualise planning scenarios and policy impacts.