Population health is defined by health outcomes and the distribution of these outcomes in a group of people. It is a way of approaching health with the idea of developing it in the entire population. In achieving this, health inequalities should be discouraged between groups in a population. Population health aims to go beyond the level of public health and medicine by dealing with a wide range of factors that affect the health of a population. Examples of these factors are social structure, environment and the distribution of resources (Deakins University 1992).

The purpose of this paper is to discuss population health issues that relate to access to health care for people living in rural communities. This paper will briefly summarize the current situation in Australia and examine the effectiveness of current strategies to ensure health equity for those living in rural areas.