[Economic fields and accessibility to health care: study areas for occupations]

The recent mapping of France into 365 employment study areas provides a higher socio-economic coherence from the geographic point of view. When analyzing the supply of health services on the basis of these 365 areas, one can observe that the GP/population ratio is evenly high in the southern part of France. In the northern part, it is more heterogeneous. Moreover, it decreases where the proportion of manual workers increases. The medical specialists/population ratio is high in large cities, especially in those with a significant service sector. Geographic distribution of health manpower does not appear to coincide with the demand for health services.