Crap Towns / Greater Manchester / Rochdale
Rochdale
94/100Crap Score
60th crappest of 984 towns, and 10th 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
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agree it's crap have defended it
Rochdale. Lovely town hall.
The town hall's a Gothic palace. Walk out the front door and it's To Let signs.
Rochdale gave the world the co-operative movement and built itself a town hall fit for a cathedral city. Then the shops packed up and went to Manchester. They dug the river back up to brighten the centre, which helps until you reach the bus station after dark.
It pisses down on 175 days a year and the sun's out for 1,289 hours, which is no weather for empty shopfronts. The kitchens fail their hygiene inspections nearly four times as often as the typical town's, and one in eight takeaways fails too. Bury and Oldham think it's a dump and won't hear otherwise.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Rochdale's 98 for food hygiene means it's crapper than 98% of towns.
- Food hygiene98/1009.2% rated 0 to 2, of the 610 food businesses with a rating
- Rain95/100175 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Fly-tipping88/10023.7 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Rochdale council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Deliberate fires82/10013.9 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Air pollution72/10011.2 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.0 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Criminal damage and arson71/1008.7 per 1,000 people a year, July 2023 to June 2026
- Sewage spills71/100623 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Anti-social behaviour60/10016.7 per 1,000 people a year, July 2023 to June 2026
- Broadband47/1007.9% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 8.0% across the Rochdale council area
- Serious road collisions42/1002.2 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Heywood | 97 |
| 7 | Kearsley | 96 |
| 8 | Walkden | 95 |
| 9 | Bolton | 94 |
| 10 | Rochdale | 94 |
| 11 | Oldham | 94 |
| 12 | Little Hulton | 93 |
| 13 | Audenshaw | 93 |
| 14 | Horwich | 93 |
Rochdale by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 102 crimes per 1,000 people a year (July 2023 to June 2026) Worse: 34% higher than the typical town's 76.2
- 31 reports of fly-tipping on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 2.8 per 10,000 people, 2.5x the typical town's 1.1
- 5 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2020
What's left on the high street
- 32 pubs, 8 hairdressers, 4 charity shops, 4 bookmakers, 1 vape shop, 7 banks, 3 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 12.7% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (19 of 150) Worse: 3.2x the typical town's 4.0%
- 3 bank branch closures announced since 2022 Better: 2.7 per 100,000 people, 21% lower than the typical town's 3.4
- 1 library shut for good since 2010: Belfield Library
- 9 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Worse: 0.8 per 10,000 people, 50% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- 5 public swimming pools open; 3 closed for good since 2010 Worse: 0.4 per 10,000 people, 43% lower than the typical English town's 0.7
- 5 places on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 1.11am 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%
- 21.0% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 35% higher than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,289 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 16% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Rochdale council
Have a crap-off
Rochdale 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.