BORDERS towns have been ranked according to the number of married people cheating on their partner.

Illicit Encounters, a website which arranges dates for married people, describes itself as the “leading authority on infidelity”.

And now the website has announced the number of unfaithful people in every town, based on its database.

Galashiels has the highest number, with 309 people having an affair – up from the 291 recorded last year.

The Borders town in second place is Hawick with a total of 181, while Kelso rounds off the top three with 167 – an increase of 18 on 2019.

On the other end of the scale, Lauder is arguably the most faithful Borders town, with 12 residents having affairs.

The figures are based on local postcodes currently used by people signed up to the Illicit Encounters website.

Towns and villages which use the same postcodes are likely to be grouped together.

For example, Melrose has 102 people having affairs – the same figure as St Boswells. Both areas have the TD6 postcode.

None of the Borders towns makes it into the Scottish top-20, with Dumfries taking the crown based on a figure of 871 inhabitants joining Illicit Encounters – meaning 3.95 per cent of the town’s population is having an affair.

Do you want to see which towns are 'seeing other people'? Visit: www.illicitencounters.com/map/standalone to access the interactive database.