Community pharmacy density at national and subnational levels in New Zealand

As community pharmacies provide essential pharmaceutical and public health services, they should be geographically accessible to populations globally. This study aimed to explore community pharmacy density and associated factors at national and subnational levels in New Zealand (NZ). Publicly available, aggregate data for 2020 were sourced. Community pharmacy density (number of community pharmacies per 10,000 population) was calculated at the national level and at the subnational level using territorial authority (TA) areas. Associations between four TA characteristics (type [cities or districts], island [North or South], older age and deprivation score) and continuous community pharmacy density were assessed via linear regression. There were 1,154 community pharmacies. Numbers of community pharmacies per 10,000 population were 2.27 for NZ, 2.25 and 2.33 for the North and South Islands, respectively, and 2.45 and 1.95 for cities and districts, respectively. The only TA characteristic associated with community pharmacy density was TA type: cities had significantly higher community pharmacy density than districts (adjusted <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mtext>β</mml:mtext></mml:math> = 0.58, 95% confidence interval = 0.13-1.02). TAs with lowest-quintile pharmacy densities (≤1.40) were clustered towards the south of the North Island and south-west of the South Island. This study could inform development of policies aimed at providing equitable access to community pharmacies throughout NZ.