Crap Towns / Oxfordshire / Oxford
Oxford
62/100Crap Score
379th crappest of 984 towns, and the crappest in Oxfordshire. 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
Oxford. The bus hasn't moved.
Spires, colleges, tour groups blocking the pavement and a bus that hasn't moved for ages.
Oxford's gorgeous and costs a fortune to live in. The buses crawl, the traffic filters cause a punch-up every week and tour groups stand in the middle of the pavement photographing a wall. Students and locals live in different worlds. Cambridge is the other place. Swindon is the one thing both of them agree on.
Bikes get nicked at over twelve times the typical town's rate, so the only thing moving faster than the buses is your bike, without you on it. And for all the brains in the place, fly-tipping in the council area runs at two and a half times the typical council's. It's the crappest in Oxfordshire. Banbury will be thrilled.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Oxford's 92 for broadband means it's crapper than 92% of towns.
- Broadband92/10021.4% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 20.6% across the Oxford council area
- Fly-tipping90/10027.5 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Oxford council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Serious road collisions76/1003.2 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Air pollution69/1009.8 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.1 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Criminal damage and arson42/1006.5 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Deliberate fires36/1005.0 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Anti-social behaviour35/1008.5 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Sewage spills35/100128 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Food hygiene32/1002.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 1,175 food businesses with a rating
- Rain16/100116 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oxford | 62 |
| 2 | Banbury | 48 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.3 | Witney | 20 |
| 4 | Abingdon-on-Thames | 15 |
| 5 | Didcot | 13 |
| 6 | Bicester | 12 |
| 7 | Henley-on-Thames | 7 |
| 8 | Carterton | 5 |
| 9 | Wantage | 5 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Oxford by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 98.2 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Worse: 29% higher than the typical town's 76.2
- 3,743 reports of broken street lights on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 219 per 10,000 people, 312.9x the typical town's 0.7
- 12 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2025
- Poor Wolvercote Mill Stream's bathing water rating, 2025
What's left on the high street
- 94 pubs, 91 hairdressers, 26 charity shops, 16 bookmakers, 5 vape shops, 14 banks, 6 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 2.5% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (2 of 79) Better: 38% lower than the typical town's 4.0%
- 3 bank branch closures announced since 2022 Better: 1.8 per 100,000 people, 47% lower than the typical town's 3.4
- 42 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 2.5 per 10,000 people, 1.6x the typical town's 1.6
- 16 public swimming pools open; 8 closed for good since 2010 Better: 0.9 per 10,000 people, 29% higher than the typical English town's 0.7
- 3 places on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 2.53am last bus out on a Wednesday Better: Later than the typical town's 12.14am
- 1.0% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 2x the typical town's 0.5%
- 12.5% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 19% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,611 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Better: 5% higher than the typical town's 1,532
Oxford council
- £2,678 Band D council tax (2026-27) Worse: £286 more than the English average
- 20% of Oxfordshire County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 25% higher than England's 16%
- 3 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Oxford 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.