Objective:

To characterize the demand for public services among the population living in localities with less than 100 000 inhabitants.

Materials and methods:

We used data from the Encuesta Nacional de Salud y Nutrición (Ensanut) 2018. We characterize the primary health care cascade and estimated probit models on the probability of receiving care.

Results:

Among the population that reported a health problem, only 32% received care from a public institution. We found that women, having more than 50 years, being insured and belonging to the highest socioeconomic status -within this population- was associated with a greater probability of receiving care.

Conclusions:

Findings from this study show some of the challenges and opportunities to offer public health care services to the population that lives in more marginalized areas.