2025/11/12 by Nice, Kerry A., Stevenson, Mark
#FOS: Physical sciences #Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2511.09797
To measure access to social services (primary health care, early childhood care/education, and public transport), we create a social service access index (SSI) for Australian capital cities. We show that only two, Melbourne and Sydney, have some limited characteristics of a compact or 15-minute city, but only in city centres and inner cities where population densities are highest and have less low density housing types. In the outer suburban and peri-urban areas as well as across all of the remaining cities, proximity to social services is poor and residents suffer the consequences of spatial inequity.