Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
21,151 people call this large town in Greater Manchester, North West home.
Dukinfield’s best grade is for walkability: 21% of commuters get to work on foot, by bike or by public transport. Health outcomes fall short of most towns (D): life expectancy 75.6 for men, 79.9 for women. Buying the median home, at £210,000, takes 5 years of household income in the Tameside council area. School results trail most towns (D): primary results beat just over a fifth of towns in England; secondary results beat 3% of towns in England.
Figures: commuting, Census 2021 · life expectancy and incomes, ONS · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years. Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime to police.uk, so Dukinfield has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. The other subjects are graded below.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within England), ordered by how far Dukinfield is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime to police.uk, so Dukinfield has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. The other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The 3 things Dukinfield does most differently from other towns.
Historic England lists 15 buildings inside Dukinfield’s built-up area, 2 of them Grade II*.
18% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
Explore the history →15 listed buildings in Dukinfield.
Tower Mill: Photo: A. Carty · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Dukinfield Town Hall: Photo: Alan Bate · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Church of St Mark: Photo: David Dixon · CC BY-SA 2.0 · War Memorial: Photo: Gerald England · CC BY-SA 2.0
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Dukinfield.
At 41.6, the median resident of Dukinfield sits in the middle of the age range. The 15-to-24 age group: 11%, below both Greater Manchester’s towns (13%) and England’s towns (12%). The under-15s are 18% of the population here.
51% women, 49% men
About an even split. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Dukinfield | Greater Manchester | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 18% | 19% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 11% | 13% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 25% | 28% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 27% | 24% | 25% |
| 65+ | 19% | 16% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 23% | 20% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 7.4% | 5.6% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 18% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 22% | 32% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Greater Manchester and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
St John's CofE Primary School, Dukinfield’s results beat 95% of schools in England like it. Attainment 8 at the town’s 2 secondary schools averages 35.9, and 26% of pupils get grade 5 or above in English and maths. Of its 11 schools, three are shown below, each with the reason. 55% of pupils at the town’s 6 primary schools met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average).
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ravensfield Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 386 | D |
| All Saints Catholic CollegeLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 810 | D |
| St John's CofE Primary School, DukinfieldTop results in townPrimary | Primary | 325 | A+ |
7.2% of residents described their health as bad or very bad, above Greater Manchester’s towns (5.9%) and England’s towns (5.2%) alike. Disability touches just over a fifth of Dukinfield’s population. 3 GP practices serve the town; 80% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. Asked at the census, 77% of residents of Dukinfield said they were in good or very good health.
| Census 2021 | Dukinfield | Greater Manchester | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 77% | 81% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 7.2% | 5.9% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 22% | 18% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · These shares come straight from the census, without allowing for age, and young towns benefit; the Health Grade instead weighs age-adjusted measures, including life expectancy and early deaths.
The private rented sector houses 15% of households. The £210,000 median rests on 632 standard sales inside the built-up area (September 2023 to August 2026). Private rents average £931 a month across the Tameside council area.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £335,000 | 96 |
| Semi-detached | £240,000 | 232 |
| Terraced | £175,000 | 284 |
| Flat or maisonette | £121,000 | 20 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 22% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Jobs per working resident: 0.7. About 14% of its commuters stay in Dukinfield for work. The average household earns £40K a year before tax. Just over a fifth of workers worked mainly from home, below both Greater Manchester’s towns (29%) and England’s towns (31%).
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Grade II* covers 2 of them. Homes from before 1919 make up 18% of the total, between Greater Manchester’s towns (20%) and England’s towns (16%). Scaled to its population, that is 7 listed buildings for every 10,000 people in Dukinfield.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Dukinfield. Best known first.
CastleBuckton Castle4.6 km outside town, to the northeastMuseumMuseumPortland Basin Museum200 m outside town, to the northwestMuseumMuseumAstley Cheetham Art Gallery600 m outside town, to the northeastMuseumMuseumMuseum of the Manchester Regiment500 m outside town, to the northwestMuseumMuseumClayton Hall4.9 km outside town, to the westPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
14 notable people were born in Dukinfield.
Tony Brooks: Hotel de France, Public domain · Kathy Staff: Bernard Dodington at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Carole James: mattjiggins, CC BY 2.0 · Albert Lawton: George Beldam, Public domain · John North: S. P. Andrew, Public domain · Roderick Jones: Elliott & Fry, Public domain
Large town in Greater Manchester, England
Dukinfield is a built-up area of 21,151 people, in the Tameside council area. TownRatings uses ONS’s 2022 built-up areas as towns: the physical town, as people mean the word, rather than a council district, so its figures cover the town itself.
Built from ONS geography and Census 2021
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dukinfield | 21,151 | — | — | D | — | D |
| Hyde | 35,902 | 1.5 | — | D | — | D |
| Ashton-under-Lyne | 48,595 | 1.6 | — | D | — | D− |
| Stalybridge | 26,850 | 1.9 | — | D | — | D |
| Audenshaw | 13,397 | 1.9 | — | D− | — | C− |
| Denton | 36,005 | 2.2 | — | D | — | C− |
| Hattersley | 6,959 | 2.6 | — | D | — | D− |
| Droylsden | 23,916 | 2.9 | — | D | — | D |
Hyde, Ashton-under-Lyne, Stalybridge, Audenshaw, Denton, Hattersley and Droylsden have no Safety Grade: Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish to police.uk. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
We can’t say from police.uk: Greater Manchester Police doesn’t publish street-level crime data there, so Dukinfield has no Safety Grade. Greater Manchester Police’s own figures cover whole boroughs, not towns.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £210,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £121,000, terraced houses £175,000, semi-detached houses £240,000 and detached houses £335,000. Household incomes are lower than in 94% of UK towns, so cost of living grades D.
Sources: ONS Census 2021, output areas summed to the ONS 2022 built-up area · HM Land Registry Price Paid (standard sales, September 2023 to August 2026) · ONS Price Index of Private Rents (August 2026, by council) · MHCLG and Welsh Government council tax, Band D 2026–27 (with parish precepts in England) · data.police.uk street-level crime, 36 months to August 2026, points inside the built-up-area boundary · ONS small-area life expectancy and healthy life expectancy, 2019 to 2023 (England and Wales), OHID Fingertips small-area indicators (England) and Census 2021 health, adjusted for age · ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023) · DWP claimant count via Nomis (January to August 2026) · Historic England, National Heritage List for England (listed buildings, scheduled monuments, registered parks and gardens, battlefields, World Heritage Sites), October 2026, inside the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary · Valuation Office Agency, Council Tax: stock of properties by build period (31 March 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.