Photo: Andrew Hill · CC BY-SA 2.0Life expectancy in Dronfield runs ahead of the figure across England: 81.5 for men and 85.4 for women
England as a whole stood at 79.1 and 83.0 over 2019 to 2023. Dronfield grades B for health: life expectancy, healthy life expectancy, early deaths, hospital admissions, child obesity and Census health, each adjusted for age; #9 of 59 in Derbyshire.
What stands out about health in Dronfield
A&E waits run longer than England’s
Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the A&E at Chesterfield Royal Hospital, saw 48% of major-A&E patients within four hours in the 12 months to September 2026, against 61% across England: 108th of 117 trusts. 13% of patients admitted through its A&Es waited more than 12 hours from the decision to admit, against 13% in England. A&E ↓
Patients rate Dronfield’s GP practices above England’s
In the 2026 GP Patient Survey, 86% of patients at Dronfield’s 3 practices called their overall experience good, against 77% across England, and 72% found it easy to get through by phone (57% in England). That is ahead of 77% of English towns. GP practices ↓
Fewer of Dronfield’s children are obese
15% of Year 6 children (aged 10 to 11) were measured as obese over the last three school years, against 22.3% across England; fewer than in 76% of UK towns. Health Grade ↓
Written from the OHID, NHS England and GP Patient Survey figures on this page. Life expectancy covers 2019 to 2023; neighbourhoods are ONS middle-layer areas of about 8,000 people.
Dronfield grades B for health
Healthier than 65% of UK towns, on age-adjusted measures.
What holds the grade back: emergency admissions and preventable deaths (better than 37% and 52% of UK towns). What lifts it: women’s life expectancy (77%) and child obesity (76%). Among the 324 UK towns of 15,000 to 29,000 people, Dronfield’s Health Grade is the 58th highest.
Each measure is ranked against every UK town of 1,000 or more, the ranks are averaged, and the average is ranked again. Every measure allows for the town’s ages: life expectancy is worked out from the death rate at each age, so it doesn’t depend on how old the town’s residents are; deaths and admissions are counted against what England’s rates would give a town with these ages, and the Census answers against England and Wales’s rates by single year of age, so a seaside town of retired people isn’t marked down for being old.
Chesterfield Royal Hospital saw 48% of major-A&E patients within four hours
Type 1 (major) A&E attendances seen, admitted or discharged within four hours of arrival, by month. NHS England publishes it by trust, not hospital: Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust runs the A&E at Chesterfield Royal Hospital, the nearest to Dronfield (5.6 mi).
The share seen within four hours has held near 50% over 18 months. Long waits for a bed are close to the typical trust’s: 3,353 patients in 12 months, 13% of emergency admissions through A&E. CQC’s latest ratings for Chesterfield Royal Hospital: urgent and emergency services good (2024), the hospital overall good (2026).
Midlands trusts
Hospitals within 25 miles
| Distance | Hospital | CQC overall | Urgent & emergency |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.4 mi | Royal Hallamshire Hospital Sheffield · Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Requires improvement2022 | — |
| 5.5 mi | Sheffield Children's Hospital Sheffield · Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust | Not rated | — |
| 5.5 mi | Weston Park Hospital Sheffield · Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Requires improvement2018 | — |
| 5.6 mi | Chesterfield Royal Hospital A&E Chesterfield · Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | Good2026 | Good2024 |
| 7.6 mi | Northern General Hospital A&E Sheffield · Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Requires improvement2022 | Requires improvement2022 |
| 9.5 mi | Rotherham General Hospital A&E Rotherham · The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust | Requires improvement2021 | Requires improvement2021 |
| 15 mi | Bassetlaw District General Hospital A&E Worksop · Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Requires improvement2026 | Requires improvement2024 |
| 15 mi | King's Mill Hospital A&E Sutton In Ashfield · Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Good2026 | Good2026 |
NHS acute hospitals registered with the Care Quality Commission (care directory, 01 October 2026). “A&E” marks a major (type 1) emergency department, open 24 hours and led by consultants, in NHS England’s Emergency Care Data Set; a hospital without the mark may still have a minor injury unit or urgent treatment centre. Ratings run Outstanding, Good, Requires improvement, Inadequate; the year is when each was published. Distances are straight lines from the town centre.
86% of patients rate Dronfield’s 3 GP practices good
GP Patient Survey 2026 (NHS England, run by Ipsos), about 100 patients a practice, against 77% across England. 38th of 267 English towns of 15,000 to 29,000, from the highest.
| Practice | Overall experience | Easy by phone | Wait about right | CQC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stubley Medical Centre S18 8QY · 5,047 adult patients | 91% good · range 86%–95% | 84% | 88% | Not rated |
| Dronfield Medical Practice S18 1PY · 8,531 adult patients | 84% good · range 74%–91% | 65% | 80% | Good2019 |
| Oakhill Medical Practice S18 2EJ · 3,342 adult patients | 83% good · range 80%–86% | 69% | 79% | Good2017 |
Stubley Medical Centre has the town’s highest rating (91%). You can register with any practice whose area covers your address.
GP Patient Survey 2026: surveys sent January to March 2026; results weighted by NHS England. The range is the 95% confidence interval. Adult patients: the survey’s practice population aged 16 and over. A practice counts as in Dronfield when its main surgery is inside the built-up area; branch surgeries are part of their main practice. CQC ratings © Care Quality Commission.
Men’s life expectancy across Dronfield runs from 77.6 to 84.1
Life expectancy at birth, 2019–23, in Dronfield’s 4 middle-layer neighbourhoods (about 8,000 people each). Circles are sized by residents and show men’s life expectancy.
Dronfield Town & Unstone has the most deaths under 75 for its ages (119 per 100 expected), against 53 in Dronfield Woodhouse & Holmesfield.
Show every measure as a table
| Neighbourhood | Men | Women | Deaths under 75 | Emergency admissions | Year 6 obese | Income-deprived |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dronfield Woodhouse & Holmesfield | 84.1 | 85.7 | 53 | 86 | 7.3% | 4.8% |
| Dronfield South & Gosforth Lane | 83.1 | 88.6 | 56 | 85 | 18% | 6.3% |
| Eckington West & Coal Aston | 81.1 | 84.9 | 86 | 93 | 19% | 5.7% |
| Dronfield Town & Unstone | 77.6 | 81.2 | 119 | 109 | 17% | 21% |
Deaths and admissions per 100 expected for each area’s ages (England = 100). Each figure has a range: Dronfield Town & Unstone’s men’s life expectancy is 77.6 with a 95% range of 75.9 to 79.3. Neighbourhoods are ONS middle-layer areas at least 30% inside Dronfield; names are the House of Commons Library’s.
Men’s life expectancy in Dronfield is about what its level of deprivation predicts
Across 1,996 English towns of 2,500 or more, men’s life expectancy tracks income deprivation closely (correlation −0.81). Each dot is a town.
9.9% of Dronfield’s residents are income-deprived, less than in most English towns. For that level, the line predicts 81.8 years for men; Dronfield’s is 81.5. For women it predicts 85.2, and Dronfield’s 85.4 is close to it.
Income deprivation: share of residents in low-income households, English Indices of Deprivation 2025, averaged over each town’s neighbourhoods. A town above or below the line isn’t necessarily doing better or worse on care: students, prisons and hostels inside a boundary all shift the figures.
Care in and near Dronfield
The nearest A&E, the practice patients rate highest, and where to go when it’s urgent but not an emergency. In an emergency, call 999.
83% of adults in the Derby and Derbyshire area who tried got an NHS dental appointment
Adults who tried to get an NHS dental appointment for themselves in the last two years, and got one. GP Patient Survey 2026, by integrated care system (the NHS area that plans dentistry for Dronfield).
Across England 82% of those who tried got an appointment. Of Derby and Derbyshire patients who did, 74% rated the experience good (England 74%). NHS practices taking new patients are listed on the NHS website’s Find a dentist; for urgent dental pain, call NHS 111.
The survey asks GP patients about dentistry, so results are published for health areas, not towns or practices.
81% of residents say their health is good or very good
Census 2021, all residents, as answered (not adjusted for age).
Dronfield’s residents are older than Derbyshire’s (29% are 65 or over, against 20%), which accounts for much of the difference. Adjusted for age, 70 report bad health for every 100 expected, fewer than the national rate.
Show as a table
| Census 2021 | Dronfield | Derbyshire | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 81% | 80% | 82% |
| Fair health | 14% | 14% | 13% |
| Bad or very bad health | 4.6% | 6% | 5.2% |
| Disabled under the Equality Act | 19% | 20% | 17% |
| Day-to-day activities limited a lot | 7.2% | 8.5% | 7.4% |
Derbyshire and England: all residents of their built-up areas (towns and cities), from the same Census 2021 output areas.
Dronfield’s Health Grade is 58th of 324 UK towns of 15,000 to 29,000
Ordered by Health Grade: the top three, the towns either side of Dronfield, and others in Derbyshire. Life expectancy for men / women; deaths under 75 per 100 expected.
| # | Town | People | Life expectancy | Deaths under 75 | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hale Greater Manchester | 16,716 | 83.3 / 86.4 | 58 | A+ |
| 2 | Amersham Buckinghamshire | 17,377 | 83.1 / 86.5 | 60 | A+ |
| 3 | Great Bookham and Fetcham Surrey | 21,655 | 83.4 / 87.3 | 58 | A+ |
| … | |||||
| 56 | Wymondham Norfolk | 16,334 | 80.3 / 85.2 | 73 | B+ |
| 57 | Brackley Northamptonshire | 16,180 | 80.9 / 83.8 | 79 | B+ |
| 58 | Dronfield Derbyshire | 21,161 | 81.5 / 85.4 | 77 | B |
| 59 | Clevedon Somerset | 21,084 | 81.5 / 85.0 | 79 | B |
| 60 | Longfield, New Ash Green and Hartley Kent | 16,077 | 81.3 / 84.0 | 78 | B |
| … | |||||
| 85 | Belper Derbyshire | 19,076 | 81.0 / 83.3 | 82 | B− |
| … | |||||
| 104 | Glossop Derbyshire | 17,820 | 79.8 / 83.1 | 93 | B− |
| … | |||||
| 171 | Buxton Derbyshire | 20,048 | 78.1 / 81.8 | 116 | C |
| … | |||||
| 324 | Bellshill North Lanarkshire | 19,488 | 73.1 / 77.9 | — | D− |
Health letters rank against every UK town of 1,000 or more; the order here is context only. Welsh towns are graded on life expectancy, healthy life expectancy and the two Census measures: OHID’s early-death, admissions and child-obesity figures cover England.
Health in the places around Dronfield
Life expectancy for men / women, and the nearest A&E. Tap a town for its health page.
| Town | People | Life expectancy | Nearest A&E | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dronfield | 21,161 | 81.5 / 85.4 | 5.6 mi | B |
| Chesterfield | 76,394 | 77.6 / 81.9 | 1.8 mi | C− |
| Eckington | 7,435 | 79.2 / 82.4 | 5 mi | C− |
| Brimington | 11,068 | 79.7 / 80.8 | 1.2 mi | C− |
| Sheffield | 500,520 | 77.7 / 81.7 | 2.4 mi | C− |
| Staveley | 15,151 | 77.3 / 79.8 | 2.2 mi | D− |
| Holymoorside | 1,363 | 81.9 / 86.3 | 4.2 mi | B+ |
| Renishaw | 2,425 | 78.7 / 81.6 | 5 mi | D |
Staveley, 5.3 miles away, has men’s life expectancy of 77.3, 4.2 years shorter than Dronfield’s.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- A&E figures are for the trust. NHS England publishes four-hour waits by trust, not hospital, so Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s figures cover every major A&E it runs. They count type 1 (major) departments; minor injury units and urgent treatment centres are left out, which is why they sit below the all-types figure NHS England headlines (75% for England).
- The GP survey is a survey. About 100 patients answer for each practice, so a practice’s figure has a range (shown in the table); small differences between practices aren’t meaningful. The town figure weights each practice by its adult patients, some of whom live outside Dronfield.
- Adjusted for age. A ratio of 100 means as many deaths, admissions or reports of bad health as England’s rates (England and Wales’s for the Census) would give a town with these ages; 120 means a fifth more.
- Small areas, summed to the town. OHID publishes these figures for middle-layer areas of about 8,000 people; the town’s figure averages the areas it covers, weighted by how many of their residents live in it, so a village shares its area’s figure with the countryside around it.
- Different years. Life expectancy and deaths cover 2019 to 2023; emergency admissions 2016/17 to 2020/21 (the latest OHID publishes for small areas, including the pandemic dip); child obesity the three school years to 2024/25; A&E the 12 months to September 2026; the GP Patient Survey early 2026; CQC ratings were published on different dates, shown in each row.
- Distances are straight lines. Miles are measured from the town’s centre to each site; the road is longer. For an emergency, call 999; for urgent advice, call NHS 111.
Questions about health in Dronfield
How healthy is Dronfield?
Dronfield earns a B for health, healthier than 65% of UK towns on measures adjusted for age, and 58th of 324 UK towns of its size. Life expectancy is 81.5 for men and 85.4 for women (England 79.1 and 83.0), and there are 77 deaths under 75 for every 100 expected.
How long are A&E waits at Chesterfield Royal Hospital?
NHS England publishes waits for the trust, Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. In the 12 months to September 2026 it saw 48% of major-A&E patients within four hours, against 61% across England; in September 2026 the figure was 51%. In an emergency call 999; for urgent advice call NHS 111.
Can I get an NHS dentist in Dronfield?
In the 2026 GP Patient Survey, 83% of adults in the Derby and Derbyshire area who tried to get an NHS dental appointment in the last two years got one, against 82% across England. Practices taking new NHS patients are listed on the NHS website’s Find a dentist service.
Which GP practice in Dronfield do patients rate highest?
In the 2026 GP Patient Survey, Stubley Medical Centre (91% good overall), Dronfield Medical Practice (84% good overall) and Oakhill Medical Practice (83% good overall). Across all 3 Dronfield practices, 86% of patients rate their practice good, against 77% in England.
What is the life expectancy in Dronfield?
81.5 years for men and 85.4 for women, on OHID’s figures for 2019 to 2023. Men can expect 68.4 of those years and women 70.2 in good health.
CQC ratings © Care Quality Commission.
Sources: OHID Fingertips small-area indicators (life expectancy and deaths 2019–23, emergency admissions 2016/17–2020/21, NCMP 2022/23–2024/25); House of Commons Library MSOA names · ONS health state life expectancy for small areas (MSOAs), England and Wales, 2019 to 2023 (healthy life expectancy) · ONS Census 2021 general health and disability, adjusted for age · Care Quality Commission care directory and latest ratings, 01 October 2026 · NHS Organisation Data Service · GP Patient Survey 2026 (NHS England, run by Ipsos) · NHS England, A&E Attendances and Emergency Admissions (monthly, by trust) and Emergency Care Data Set activity by site, June–September 2026 (type 1 A&Es) · MHCLG English Indices of Deprivation 2025 · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.