Crap Towns / Greater Manchester / Atherton
Atherton
74/100Crap Score
254th crappest of 984 towns, and 42nd in Greater Manchester. Higher scores are crapper.
Have your say
Crap Town of the Year 2026/27
See the raceThe public vote. It's separate from the Crap Score, and it closes on 31 December 2027.
Letters from the locals
Got something to say about Atherton? Write in.
agree it's crap have defended it
They call it Bent. Leave it.
Atherton made nails, then nuts and bolts. It's got two football clubs who can't stand each other.
Atherton is Chowbent, or just Bent, and the locals are Chowbenters, which nobody outside the place has ever heard of. It made nails and then nuts and bolts, and its two football clubs play a derby called the Flat Cap Derby.
The kitchens are the real worry. One in eight food businesses with a rating gets 0 to 2 from the hygiene inspectors, five times the typical town's share. There are 20 pubs, and the beer's the safest thing on the menu. There are nearly three times as many deliberate fires as in the typical town.
The guided bus is rammed when it turns up, and parked outside the shops on Market Street when it doesn't.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Atherton's 97 for food hygiene means it's crapper than 97% of towns.
- Food hygiene97/10012.1% rated 0 to 2, of the 157 food businesses with a rating
- Sewage spills84/1001,068 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Deliberate fires84/10015.5 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Rain83/100160 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Criminal damage and arson76/1009.2 per 1,000 people a year, July 2023 to June 2026
- Anti-social behaviour66/10017.5 per 1,000 people a year, July 2023 to June 2026
- Air pollution61/1009.9 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.7 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Fly-tipping35/1008.4 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Wigan council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Serious road collisions22/1001.7 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Broadband22/1005.0% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 3.5% across the Wigan council area
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 38 | Dukinfield | 79 |
| 39 | Prestwich | 79 |
| 40 | Wigan | 77 |
| 41 | Hyde | 75 |
| 42 | Atherton | 74 |
| 43 | Bredbury and Woodley | 72 |
| 44 | Shaw | 72 |
| 45 | Droylsden | 70 |
| 46 | Tyldesley | 68 |
Atherton by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 89.5 crimes per 1,000 people a year (July 2023 to June 2026) Worse: 17% higher than the typical town's 76.2
- 1 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Better: 0.4 per 10,000 people, 88% lower than the typical town's 3.4
- 4 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2025
What's left on the high street
- 20 pubs, 9 hairdressers, 2 charity shops, 1 vape shop, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 9.7% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (3 of 31) Worse: 2.4x the typical town's 4.0%
- 3 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Worse: 1.1 per 10,000 people, 31% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- 2 public swimming pools open About the same: 0.7 per 10,000 people, about the same as the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.45am last bus out on a Wednesday Better: Later than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.2% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 60% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 20.2% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 30% higher than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,409 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 8% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Wigan council
Have a crap-off
Atherton against your mate's town, and a match ticket to rub it in.
- ?Fly-tippingper 1,000, council area?
- ?Anti-social behaviourper 1,000 people?
- ?Serious road crashesper 10,000 people?
- ?Sewage spillshours per 10,000 people?
- ?Food hygienerated poor?
- ?Criminal damageper 1,000 people?
- ?Dirty airµg/m³?
- ?No gigabitof premises can't get it?
- ?Deliberate firesper 10,000 people?
- ?Raindays a year?
Ten ingredients. One verdict. Who's crapper? The higher Crap Score takes it.