The Geographic Classification for Health (GCH) is a rural-urban geographic classification designed to allow New Zealand’s health researchers and policy makers to accurately monitor rural-urban variations in health outcomes.
The GCH classifies all areas of Aotearoa New Zealand as rural or urban according to their proximity to larger urban areas. The population and drive time thresholds used in the GCH framework were developed with health and health services in mind.
Latest releases – March 2026
Funders and collaborators
The original version of the GCH was funded by a Health Research Council project grant.
Health Research Council NZ
The 2023 update of the GCH and development of the GCH address finder were funded by Hauora Taiwhenua Rural Health Network.
Hauora Taiwhenua Rural Health Network
The GCH is the result of a collaboration between the Centre for Rural Health, University of Otago, and the Te Ngira Institute for Population Research, University of Waikato.
Te Ngira Institute for Population Research, University of Waikato
Copyright, attribution and citations
The GCH is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives International licence 4.0 CC BY-ND 4.0
You are free to copy and distribute the work in any medium or format in unadapted form, including for commercial purposes, as long as you attribute the work to the Centre for Rural Health, University of Otago and abide by the other licence terms. If you remix, transform or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material without the permission of the Centre for Rural Health, University of Otago.
Suggested citations:
Centre for Rural Health, University of Otago. Geographic Classification for Health: GCH23. 2026. [cited year month day] Available from: https://www.otago.ac.nz/centre-for-rural-health/research/geographic-classification-for-health
Whitehead J, Davie G, de Graaf B, Crengle S, Fearnley D, Smith M, Lawrenson R, Nixon G. Defining rural in Aotearoa New Zealand: a novel geographic classification for health puposes. New Zealand Medical Journal. 2022;135(1559)