Crap Towns / Stirling / Stirling
Stirling
71/100Crap Score
Known as the Gateway to the Highlands.
284th crappest of 984 towns. It's the crappest town in the table for Stirling because it's the only one big enough to be in it. 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
Stirling. The castle's the good bit.
A castle on a rock, a monument on a hill and a city centre where the shops gave up.
Stirling has a castle on a crag, the Wallace Monument on the hill across the way, and coach parties who see both and leave. Going up the town, as locals still call it, means the Thistles centre, empty units, charity shops and a fair bit of grot. It got made a city in 2002 and nobody's told the High Street.
It's dark, mind. The sun manages 1,312 hours a year. Nearly twice the typical Scottish town's share of takeaways were told to improve, bikes get nicked at several times the typical Scottish town's rate, and the council's roads are worse than Scotland's on every class going. Not that you'd want to cycle on them anyway.
Stirlingers call it the Gateway to the Highlands. That's because it's where you go through to get somewhere else.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Stirling's 85 for food hygiene means it's crapper than 85% of towns.
- Food hygiene85/10010.6% told to improve, of the 320 food businesses inspected
- Rain85/100162 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Broadband70/1005.8% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 22.8% across the Stirling council area
- Anti-social behaviour69/10010.8 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Sewage spills60/100401 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2025
- Serious road collisions57/1001.8 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Criminal damage and arson57/1007.6 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Fly-tipping50/100
- Deliberate fires26/10011.0 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Air pollution7/1005.3 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 4.5 of fine particles, 2024 average
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stirling | 71 |
Stirling by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 61.2 crimes per 1,000 people a year (January 2023 to December 2025) Worse: 13% higher than the typical Scottish town's 54.4
- 21 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 About the same: 5.4 per 10,000 people, about the same as the typical Scottish town's 5.6
What's left on the high street
- 18 pubs, 15 hairdressers, 10 charity shops, 3 bookmakers, 2 vape shops, 6 banks, 2 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 17.1% of takeaways inspected told to improve (6 of 35) Worse: 1.9x the typical Scottish town's 9.1%
- 2 bank branch closures announced since 2022 Worse: 5.2 per 100,000 people, 1.5x the typical town's 3.4
- 11 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 2.9 per 10,000 people, 1.8x the typical town's 1.6
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.12am last bus out on a Wednesday About the same: About the same as 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%
- 13.8% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 11% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,312 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 14% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Stirling council
- £1,753 Band D council tax (2026-27) Worse: £100 more than the Scottish average
- 48% of Stirling council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 33% higher than Scotland's 36%
- 35 ombudsman complaints decided in 2025-26, none upheld Worse: 37.8 per 100,000 residents, 9% higher than Scotland's 34.7
- 86.4% of the streets checked passed as clean (2025-26) Worse: 6% lower than Scotland's 92.2%
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Stirling 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.