Photo: Andrew Hill · CC BY-SA 2.0Per resident, Dronfield sees less crime than 95% of UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people
Violence recorded locally held about level in a year. Recorded violent and sexual offences ran at 15.9 per 1,000 residents a year, and burglary, vehicle crime and damage at 8.5.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Dronfield
Less crime than most places its size
Of 268 UK towns of 15,000 to 29,000 people, Dronfield has the 12th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Kenilworth, Crowborough and Formby, higher than Great Bookham and Fetcham, Woodley and South Woodham Ferrers. Towns its size ↓
Many neighbourhoods rank low for crime nationally
The government’s Indices of Deprivation 2025 rank every neighbourhood in England on recorded crime. 64% of Dronfield’s residents live in one of the lowest-crime 10%, and 0% in one of the highest-crime 20%. Neighbourhood ranks ↓
One ward carries much of the rate
Dronfield North ward, where 35% of Dronfield’s shoplifting and theft is recorded, recorded 422 of Dronfield’s 1,012 violent and sexual offences in three years: 38.4 per 1,000 of its own residents a year. Across the rest of Dronfield the figure is 11.2. Where in Dronfield ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
How Dronfield comes out at B+
A firm grade. Built on 1,551 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Dronfield against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
Most Dronfield residents live in one of England’s lowest-crime neighbourhoods
80% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 0% in the highest-crime 20%. The crime domain scores the risk of violence, burglary, theft and criminal damage where people live, so it can read differently from the town-wide rate, which counts crimes where they happened.
Dronfield’s residents by the crime decile of their neighbourhood (LSOA, about 1,500 people) in the English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (crime domain), where 1 is the highest-crime 10% of England’s neighbourhoods and 10 the lowest.
Of 268 towns its size, Dronfield is 12th from the least graded crime
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Streetly West Midlands | 16,790 | 11.2 | 9 | 5.3 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 9 | Great Bookham and Fetcham Surrey | 21,655 | 15.3 | 7.5 | 5.1 | A− |
| 10 | Woodley Berkshire | 28,019 | 18.1 | 5.8 | 5.5 | B+ |
| 11 | South Woodham Ferrers Essex | 16,029 | 17.9 | 6.3 | 9.3 | B+ |
| 12 | Dronfield Derbyshire | 21,161 | 15.9 | 8.5 | 8.9 | B+ |
| 13 | Hadfield Derbyshire | 16,271 | 17.5 | 7.3 | 4.1 | B+ |
| 14 | Carrickfergus Mid and East Antrim | 28,141 | 18.7 | 6.3 | 6.8 | B+ |
| 15 | Seaford East Sussex | 23,865 | 18.6 | 6.4 | 8 | B+ |
| … | ||||||
| 50 | Belper Derbyshire | 19,076 | 25.6 | 6.7 | 9 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 84 | Glossop Derbyshire | 17,820 | 28.1 | 9.3 | 13.7 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 140 | South Normanton and Pinxton Derbyshire | 16,028 | 33.1 | 12.9 | 9.3 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 192 | Somercotes and Swanwick Derbyshire | 15,105 | 41.4 | 12.8 | 11.2 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 268 | Great Yarmouth Norfolk | 28,979 | 105 | 32.9 | 33.7 | D− |
Safety letters rank against every UK town of 1,000 or more; the order here is context only.
Graded crime per 1,000 residents a year, September 2023 to August 2026, counting from the least: towns ranked near Dronfield, and others in Derbyshire.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Dronfield runs highest on shoplifting (8.6 per 1,000 against 6.1). Criminal damage & arson and anti-social behaviour sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 316 | 14.9 | 30.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 183 | 8.6 | 6.1 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 96 | 4.5 | 12.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 66 | 3.1 | 4.4 |
| Public order | not graded | 65 | 3.1 | 5.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 62 | 2.9 | 6.2 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 47 | 2.2 | 2.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 37 | 1.7 | 2.8 |
| Drugs | not graded | 23 | 1.1 | 1.9 |
| Other crime | not graded | 16 | 0.8 | 1.8 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 8 | 0.4 | 0.3 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 6 | 0.3 | 0.7 |
| Robbery | Violent | 5 | 0.2 | 0.5 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 3 | 0.1 | 0.3 |
“Violent” is police.uk’s violence and sexual offences (which includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury), robbery and possession of weapons. Anti-social behaviour isn’t a crime category; shoplifting and other theft happen mostly in shops and town centres rather than to residents, so neither counts in the grade.
September 2025 to August 2026, per 1,000 residents. The tick on each bar is the typical (median) town among UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
Lowest recorded crime in Gosforth Valley, Coal Aston and Dronfield South; highest in Dronfield North
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gosforth Valley | 5,808 | 7 | 4 | |
| Coal Aston | 3,757 | 7.9 | 4.6 | |
| Dronfield South | 5,988 | 14.9 | 9.1 | |
| Dronfield Woodhouse | 1,946 | 19.2 | 13.2 | |
| Dronfield North | 3,662 | 38.4 | 16.2 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Petrol stations | 242 | 84% shoplifting & theft |
| Supermarkets | 149 | 80% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 124 | 32% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 123 | 41% violent |
| Shopping areas | 28 | 39% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Dronfield North records 3.4× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Dronfield. police.uk places each crime at an anonymous map point; some are named for the kind of place (a supermarket, a car park), and each row adds up every place of that kind in Dronfield. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Dronfield’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Police in Dronfield identify a suspect less often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 76% of Dronfield’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 12% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (64% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 9% of violent and 3% of household crimes reached court.
The latest outcome police.uk shows for each crime recorded in the first of the three years (September 2023 to August 2024), so most cases have closed. 569 crimes.
Crime in Dronfield per 1,000 residents
A crime isn’t a victim: one person can report several, and crimes in a town centre often involve visitors rather than residents.
And about 7 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 12 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Violent crime held steady over the year
“Towns its size” pools all UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people that police.uk covers each month (Greater Manchester has no data).
Rolling six-month rate, per 1,000 residents a year (longer windows for smaller places, where a few crimes swing a month). In the 12 months to August 2026 against the 12 before: violent -3% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -15% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +66% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -26% (towns its size -4%).
One person died in collisions on Dronfield’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 53 collisions with injuries inside Dronfield in five years, in which one person died. 13 people were killed or seriously injured: 4 on foot and 2 on a bicycle.
That is about what is typical for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people: at their median rate (0.9 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Dronfield’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Dronfield’s own rate (1.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Dronfield had 12.4 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, below the median for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people (23.8).
Casualties are counted where the collision happened, not where people lived: a main road through town adds through-traffic, and residents’ own risk on roads elsewhere isn’t here. Seriously injured uses the Department for Transport’s adjusted figures, which even out the police forces’ different ways of recording injuries. There’s no national rate here: more than half of road deaths in England and Wales (58%) happen outside every town’s built-up area. Source: DfT road casualty statistics (STATS19), 2021–2025.
Collisions police recorded inside Dronfield’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Dronfield
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dronfield | 21,161 | 15.9 | 8.5 | B+ |
| Chesterfield | 76,394 | 56.2 | 17.1 | D |
| Eckington | 7,435 | 33.7 | 11.7 | C |
| Brimington | 11,068 | 40.5 | 10.2 | C− |
| Sheffield | 500,520 | 42.4 | 23.7 | D |
| Staveley | 15,151 | 44.7 | 13.3 | D |
| Holymoorside | 1,363 | 13.5 | 2.9 | A |
| Renishaw | 2,425 | 20.1 | 11.4 | B− |
Dronfield records more graded crime per resident than 1 of its 7 neighbours. Holymoorside, 5.6 miles away, records 13.5 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Dronfield’s 15.9.
Per 1,000 residents a year, the same three years. Tap a town for its safety page.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Where crimes happen, not where victims live. police.uk places each crime at a point near where it happened. Town centres with shops, stations, a hospital and nightlife record more crime per resident, and residents of nearby villages who come in to shop or go out are part of that count.
- Bigger towns record more per resident. Across UK towns, recorded crime per resident rises steeply with size, more than in the U.S., so a city’s grade sits low against the whole UK. The “towns its size” figures show where Dronfield sits among towns like it; they are context and don’t change the grade.
- Points are approximate. police.uk moves each point to the nearest of a set of anonymous map points, so crimes near the edge of the built-up area can fall either side of it.
Questions about safety in Dronfield
Is Dronfield safe?
Police recorded 15.9 violent and sexual offences and 8.5 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Dronfield’s built-up area). That earns a B+ for safety: less crime per resident than 71% of UK towns. Among 268 UK towns of 15,000 to 29,000 people, Dronfield is 12th from the least crime. 64% of residents live in neighbourhoods in England’s lowest-crime 10%.
What are the safest areas of Dronfield?
By council ward, Gosforth Valley, Coal Aston and Dronfield South record the least violent and household crime per resident: 7, 7.9 and 14.9 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 38.4 in Dronfield North.
Is crime going up in Dronfield?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 15%, shoplifting and theft rose 66% and anti-social behaviour fell 26%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Dronfield?
Violence & sexual offences: 316 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (183) and other theft (66), with 96 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Dronfield compare with Sheffield?
Sheffield records 42.4 violent and sexual offences and 23.7 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Dronfield’s 15.9 and 8.5, over the same three years.
Sources: data.police.uk street-level crime, 36 months to August 2026, points inside the built-up-area boundary · ONS Census 2021, output areas summed to the ONS 2022 built-up area · MHCLG English Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain by LSOA (residents from ONS Census 2021) · Department for Transport road casualty statistics (STATS19), collisions 2021–2025, points inside the built-up-area boundary · 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.