Best places to live in Derbyshire: house prices and data by area

Derbyshire Dales is the dearest at £315,000 and Bolsover the cheapest at £175,000: the same budget buys 1.8 times as much home by price at one end of Derbyshire as at the other.

The marker on each bar is the middle asking price of the new homes for sale there today. In 7 of the 7 council areas with enough new homes to compare, new homes are asking more than the homes sold around them: a new home is often larger or a different kind, so the gap is not the new-build premium on its own.

343 new homes are for sale across Derbyshire today. South Derbyshire has the most (117), then North East Derbyshire (58).

Price per square foot takes the size of the home out of the comparison. It runs from £215 in Bolsover to £305 in Derbyshire Dales.

Sales for every thousand households show how often homes change hands, which is how much choice a buyer has in a year. South Derbyshire is the busiest (35) and Derbyshire Dales the quietest (25), around a middle of 28.

A busy market is a sign of both supply and demand: more homes are coming up, and more buyers are competing for them.

In South Derbyshire, 6% of the homes sold in the last twelve months were sold new, the highest share in Derbyshire; in Erewash it was 0%. New sales reach the register later than resales, so the latest months undercount them.

Sold prices were flat in the middle council area of Derbyshire over the last year. North East Derbyshire moved most (up 2.5%) and Amber Valley least (down 5.7%).

The mix of homes sold changes from year to year, so a single council area can swing for that reason alone; read the pattern across the areas more than any one bar.

Over three years the middle council area's sold prices were flat, led by Chesterfield (up 8.1%).

Over three years the cheaper council areas of Derbyshire have loosely grown faster than the dearer ones, closing some of the gap between them.

There is no clear pattern between distance to Nottingham and growth over three years: places close in and far out have moved alike.

Unusually, council areas further from Nottingham sell for more per square foot: about £12 more for every ten miles out, a loose pattern.

Unusually, council areas further from Nottingham have loosely fewer workers driving to work.

Council areas with more schools judged good or better are clearly dearer: every ten points more goes with about £43,000 on the middle sold price. The schools do not cause all of that; both follow the same households.

A council area is large: the school a home is offered depends on its own address, so check the schools around a development before relying on this.

Attainment 8 is a pupil's score across eight GCSE subjects. The secondary schools of Derbyshire Dales average the highest in Derbyshire (49.2) and those of Bolsover the lowest (40.7).

Results do not follow distance to Nottingham: there is no trade here between results and a short journey in.

Density says what kind of place an area is: how close the homes, shops, schools and stations sit. Chesterfield is the most built up (1,568 people per square kilometre) and Derbyshire Dales the least (90).

Age and income are not linked across Derbyshire: there are younger and older areas at every level of income.

Areas towards the top right have the most children and the largest households: South Derbyshire, Bolsover and Erewash lead for residents under fifteen. Towards the bottom left are the areas with more single people and couples.

In the middle council area of Derbyshire, 16% of households rent privately. Cheaper areas loosely have more renters.

Chesterfield, Erewash and High Peak have the highest walk scores in Derbyshire. Denser areas are clearly more walkable, because more is close by; an area above the line is easier on foot than its density alone would suggest.

Another way to see how easy it is to get about is how many households manage without a car. In Chesterfield, 24% have none, the most in Derbyshire. Areas towards the bottom right are where daily life depends least on driving.

A band D home pays £2,559 a year in Bolsover, the most in Derbyshire, and £2,339 in Chesterfield, the least: a difference of £220 every year for the same band.

A new home is banded when it is finished, so ask the builder which band each plot is expected to fall in.

Police recorded 123 crimes for every thousand residents in Chesterfield over the last year held, and 55 in Derbyshire Dales. City centres record more because of the people who visit them, not only those who live there, and a council area's figure hides wide differences between its streets.