Crap Towns / Aberdeenshire / Inverurie
Inverurie
21/100Crap Score
Locals call it Rurie.
776th crappest of 984 towns, and 3rd in Aberdeenshire. 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
Inverurie. Order with care.
A tidy commuter town with a railway past, a football team called the Locos and kitchens that frighten inspectors.
Inverurie built steam engines once, which is why the football team's still the Locos, and now it builds houses for folk who work in Aberdeen. It's tidy and quiet, and the main thing anyone complains about is paying to park.
Then you go for your tea. Nearly a quarter of the kitchens got a telling-off from the inspectors, four and a half times the typical Scottish town's share, and 7 of the 15 takeaways did too. Nearly half. In a town this nice. The buses thin out after 7pm as well, so once you've eaten it you're stuck with it.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Inverurie's 99 for food hygiene means it's crapper than 99% of towns.
- Food hygiene99/10023.9% told to improve, of the 109 food businesses inspected
- Broadband98/10018.7% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 51.5% across the Aberdeenshire council area
- Rain72/100147 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Fly-tipping50/100
- Sewage spills29/10090.0 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Anti-social behaviour16/1005.1 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Criminal damage and arson11/1004.2 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Serious road collisions8/1000.9 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Air pollution0/1003.1 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 4.2 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Deliberate fires0/1002.7 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Peterhead | 50 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.2 | Fraserburgh | 35 |
| 3 | Inverurie | 21 |
| 4 | Stonehaven | 14 |
| 5 | Ellon | 6 |
| 6 | Westhill | 5 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Inverurie by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 35.6 crimes per 1,000 people a year (January 2023 to December 2025) Better: 35% lower than the typical Scottish town's 54.4
- 251 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 166 per 10,000 people, 29.6x the typical Scottish town's 5.6
What's left on the high street
- 7 pubs, 4 hairdressers, 3 charity shops, 2 bookmakers, 1 vape shop, 4 banks, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 46.7% of takeaways inspected told to improve (7 of 15) Worse: 5.1x the typical Scottish town's 9.1%
- 4 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 2.6 per 10,000 people, 1.6x the typical town's 1.6
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.51pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.9% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 1.8x the typical town's 0.5%
- 5.9% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 62% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,372 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 10% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Aberdeenshire council
- £1,686 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £33 more than the Scottish average
- 27% of Aberdeenshire council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 25% lower than Scotland's 36%
- 88 ombudsman complaints decided in 2025-26, none upheld About the same: 33.4 per 100,000 residents, about the same as Scotland's 34.7
- 96.7% 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
Inverurie 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.