Crap Towns / Greater Manchester / Wigan
Wigan
77/100Crap Score
228th crappest of 984 towns, and 40th 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
There is no pier. There never was.
Wigan Pier is a bit of canal where they used to tip coal. They put it on the signs anyway.
Wiganers are Pie Eaters, and they'll stick a pie in a buttered barm and call it a Wigan kebab. Rugby league is all anyone talks about, and they used to dance all night to Northern Soul till the club got knocked down. The town centre's had better days. As far as Wigan's concerned, Leigh is a bus stop.
For the home of the pie, the kitchens are a state. The hygiene inspectors hand out 0 to 2 nearly four times as often as in the typical town, and more than one in six takeaways gets one. A bin gets set alight eight times as often as in the typical town. The rain turns up on 163 days a year.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Wigan's 97 for food hygiene means it's crapper than 97% of towns.
- Food hygiene97/1009.1% rated 0 to 2, of the 594 food businesses with a rating
- Deliberate fires90/10021.4 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Rain86/100163 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Criminal damage and arson76/1009.2 per 1,000 people a year, July 2023 to June 2026
- Anti-social behaviour66/10017.5 per 1,000 people a year, July 2023 to June 2026
- Air pollution64/10010.5 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.7 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Sewage spills55/100346 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Serious road collisions47/1002.4 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Fly-tipping35/1008.4 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Wigan council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Broadband15/1003.7% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 3.5% across the Wigan council area
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 36 | Whitefield | 81 |
| 37 | Little Lever | 80 |
| 38 | Dukinfield | 79 |
| 39 | Prestwich | 79 |
| 40 | Wigan | 77 |
| 41 | Hyde | 75 |
| 42 | Atherton | 74 |
| 43 | Bredbury and Woodley | 72 |
| 44 | Shaw | 72 |
Wigan by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 89.5 crimes per 1,000 people a year (July 2023 to June 2026) Worse: 17% higher than the typical town's 76.2
- 3 reports of broken street lights on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Better: 0.4 per 10,000 people, 43% lower than the typical town's 0.7
- 11 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2026
What's left on the high street
- 46 pubs, 38 hairdressers, 8 charity shops, 5 bookmakers, 8 banks, 2 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 17.7% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (18 of 102) Worse: 4.4x the typical town's 4.0%
- 2 bank branch closures announced since 2022 Better: 2.5 per 100,000 people, 26% lower than the typical town's 3.4
- 1 library shut for good since 2010: Beech Hill (2012)
- 8 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Worse: 1.0 per 10,000 people, 38% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- 5 public swimming pools open Worse: 0.6 per 10,000 people, 14% lower than the typical English town's 0.7
- 3 places on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 1.08am last bus out on a Wednesday Better: Later than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.5% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 0.5%
- 23.4% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 1.5x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,432 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 7% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Wigan council
Have a crap-off
Wigan 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.