Crap Towns / Aberdeenshire / Peterhead
Peterhead
50/100Crap Score
Known as the Blue Toon.
493rd crappest of 984 towns, and the crappest 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
Got something to say about Peterhead? Write in.
agree it's crap have defended it
Peterhead. The lights are off.
Europe's biggest white-fish port, an old prison turned museum and street lights that keep packing in.
Peterhead lands more white fish than anywhere else in Europe, and on a warm day you'll know about it. The prison shut and they made it a museum, which is about as big a tourist draw as the Blue Toon gets. Drummers Corner in the middle is the kind of place you walk through quickly.
And it's dark. 319 reports of broken street lights went in on FixMyStreet in a year, a rate 178.9 times the typical Scottish town's. That's not a typo. The sewage overflows spill at twice the typical town's rate, and Santander and TSB have both cleared off.
It's the crappest town in Aberdeenshire. The Broch has been saying so for years.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Peterhead's 98 for broadband means it's crapper than 98% of towns.
- Broadband98/10023.1% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 51.5% across the Aberdeenshire council area
- Food hygiene89/10012.5% told to improve, of the 120 food businesses inspected
- Rain72/100147 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Sewage spills69/100568 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2025
- Criminal damage and arson64/1008.1 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Fly-tipping50/100
- Anti-social behaviour34/1006.8 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Serious road collisions21/1001.2 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Deliberate fires11/1007.2 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Air pollution3/1004.7 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 4.0 of fine particles, 2024 average
| 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.
Peterhead by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 58.9 crimes per 1,000 people a year (January 2023 to December 2025) Worse: 8% higher than the typical Scottish town's 54.4
- 319 reports of broken street lights on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 161 per 10,000 people, 178.9x the typical Scottish town's 0.9
- Excellent Peterhead (Lido)'s bathing water rating, 2025
What's left on the high street
- 7 pubs, 4 hairdressers, 1 charity shop, 1 bookmaker, 4 banks on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 26.1% of takeaways inspected told to improve (6 of 23) Worse: 2.9x the typical Scottish town's 9.1%
- 2 bank branch closures announced since 2022 Worse: 10.1 per 100,000 people, 3x the typical town's 3.4
- 7 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 3.5 per 10,000 people, 2.2x the typical town's 1.6
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 1.16am last bus out on a Wednesday Better: Later than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.3% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 40% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 5.0% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 68% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,439 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 6% 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
Peterhead 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.