Crap Towns / Fife / Inverkeithing
Inverkeithing
27/100Crap Score
Locals call it the Divit.
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 27. 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
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agree it's crap have defended it
Inverkeithing. Where ships came to die.
A medieval royal burgh with a unicorn on the cross and a yard that broke up the Titanic's sister ship.
Inverkeithing is an ancient royal burgh with a unicorn on its Mercat Cross, and for most of the last century its big earner was the yard that took ships apart, the Titanic's sister among them. Now, for a wee place, it has more than five times the bookies you'd expect, three times the hairdressers and six times the vape shops, plus a Greggs. The town-centre regeneration has been sat behind a fence for years.
Crime's about half the typical Scottish town's, so it's quiet. Gigabit broadband reaches 78.2% of premises, against 93.8% in the typical town, which for a place every Edinburgh commuter train stops at is going some.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Inverkeithing's 91 for broadband means it's crapper than 91% of towns.
- Broadband91/10021.8% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 16.9% across the Fife council area
- Rain70/100144 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Serious road collisions58/1001.9 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Deliberate fires57/10024.8 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Fly-tipping50/100
- Sewage spills36/100132 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2025
- Air pollution19/1007.0 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 4.8 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Anti-social behaviour15/1004.1 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Criminal damage and arson12/1004.2 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Food hygiene12/1000.0% told to improve, of the 44 food businesses inspected
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kirkcaldy | 76 |
| 2 | Cowdenbeath | 62 |
| 3 | Methil | 53 |
| 4 | Glenrothes | 52 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.5 | Rosyth | 30 |
| 6 | Leven | 28 |
| – | Inverkeithing | 27 |
| 7 | Dunfermline | 18 |
| 8 | St Andrews | 5 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Inverkeithing by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 28.2 crimes per 1,000 people a year (January 2023 to December 2025) Better: 48% lower than the typical Scottish town's 54.4
- 1 problem reported on FixMyStreet in the year to October 2026 Better: 1.9 per 10,000 people, 91% lower than the typical Scottish town's 20.1
What's left on the high street
- 3 pubs, 8 hairdressers, 1 charity shop, 2 bookmakers, 1 vape shop, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 public toilet on the map (October 2026) Better: 1.9 per 10,000 people, 19% higher than the typical town's 1.6
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.22am last bus out on a Wednesday About the same: About the same as 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%
- 4.9% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 68% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,431 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 7% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Fife council
- £1,574 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £79 less than the Scottish average
- 32% of Fife council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 11% lower than Scotland's 36%
- 127 ombudsman complaints decided in 2025-26, 2 upheld About the same: 34.1 per 100,000 residents, about the same as Scotland's 34.7
- 96.1% of the streets checked passed as clean (2025-26) About the same: About the same as Scotland's 92.2%
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Inverkeithing 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.