Crap Towns / North Yorkshire / Whitby
Whitby
64/100Crap Score
Known as Whibiza. Also Shitby.
357th crappest of 984 towns, and 9th in North Yorkshire. 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
Hold on to your chips
Goths, Dracula and fish and chips. Then the gulls, the crowds and the sewage.
Whitby has the abbey, the Dracula stuff, goth weekends and cracking fish and chips. It also has gulls that take the chips out of your hand, car parks that are full by ten, bins overflowing with wrappers and sewage in the harbour. On a busy weekend you'll wish you'd gone to Scarborough. Almost.
Anti-social behaviour is up at twice the typical town's rate. Barclays, Halifax and HSBC have all gone, which for a town this size is seven times the typical rate. There's 32 pubs, about five times the typical town's per head, and six times the toilets, so somebody's thought it through. The sea's rated Excellent, but a serious pollution incident put crude sewage in the water in 2025.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Whitby's 93 for anti-social behaviour means it's crapper than 93% of towns.
- Anti-social behaviour93/10028.9 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Broadband82/10013.6% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 17.4% across the North Yorkshire council area
- Sewage spills81/100923 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Criminal damage and arson78/1009.4 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Serious road collisions73/1003.2 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Deliberate fires67/1008.5 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Rain20/100117 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Food hygiene20/1001.3% rated 0 to 2, of the 227 food businesses with a rating
- Fly-tipping12/1005.0 incidents per 1,000 people a year, North Yorkshire council area, 2023-24 to 2024-25
- Air pollution7/1004.8 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 4.9 of fine particles, 2024 average
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Guisborough | 78 |
| 6 | Skipton | 74 |
| 7 | Redcar | 71 |
| 8 | Thornaby-on-Tees | 71 |
| 9 | Whitby | 64 |
| 10 | Northallerton | 56 |
| 11 | Selby | 51 |
| 12 | Huntington | 46 |
| 13 | Haxby | 40 |
Whitby by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 86.1 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Worse: 13% higher than the typical town's 76.2
- 4 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Better: 3.2 per 10,000 people, 6% lower than the typical town's 3.4
- 1 serious pollution incident within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2025
- Excellent Whitby's bathing water rating, 2025
What's left on the high street
- 32 pubs, 5 hairdressers, 7 charity shops, 2 bookmakers, 3 banks, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 0.0% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (0 of 21) Better: Against the typical town's 4.0%
- 3 bank branch closures announced since 2022 Worse: 23.8 per 100,000 people, 7x the typical town's 3.4
- 12 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 9.5 per 10,000 people, 5.9x the typical town's 1.6
- 2 public swimming pools open Better: 1.6 per 10,000 people, 2.3x the typical English town's 0.7
- 1 place on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.27pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.8% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 1.6x the typical town's 0.5%
- 0.0% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: Against the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,632 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Better: 7% higher than the typical town's 1,532
North Yorkshire council
- £2,544 Band D council tax (2026-27) Worse: £152 more than the English average
- 18% of North Yorkshire council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 13% higher than England's 16%
- 41 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Whitby 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.