Adultery is booming in Swindon with a 12 per cent increase in the last year, new data shows. 

A new 'cheating map' reveals 1,371 people in the town are having an affair - up from 1,226 last year. 

The interactive Infidelity Index allows users to search a city, town or postcode to discover how many people are having affairs in any locality.

The figures from Illicitencounters, what calls itself the UK’s leading dating site for married people, suggests the cost of living crisis has sparked a surge in affairs, it claims.

Wiltshire's cheating capital is Trowbridge with 1,203 cheats - a 38 per cent rise on last year's figure of 876.

That means that 3.7 per cent of the town's adult population is cheating - the highest figure in the county.

Figures for other Wiltshire locations include Salisbury (6,464 cheats, up from 6,078 last year), Chippenham (770 cheats, up from 407 last year), Warminster (785 cheats, up from 745 last year), Devizes (652 cheats, up from 594 last year), Marlborough (535 cheats, up from 492 last year), Calne (503 cheats, up from 463 last year), Melksham (492 cheats, up from 465 last year), and Bradford-on-Avon (221 cheats, up from 208 last year).

This means that there were a total of 12,996 cases of people cheating in Swindon and Wiltshire this year, which is up from 11,554 last year, which makes a regional increase of 11.2 per cent.

IllicitEncounters spokesperson Jessica Leoni said: “We have seen a 12 per cent rise in affairs in Swindon over the last year.

“The cost of living crisis has been a huge factor in boosting the numbers of affairs. Sex is one of the few things you can do which is free and is a good way to relieve stress.

“Fewer unhappy couples can afford to divorce because the cost of setting up two new homes is astronomical.

"Far cheaper to stay in an unhappy relationship and have a discreet affair.

“A second factor has been life finally returning to normal after Covid and cheaters making up for lost time after two years of restrictions.

“The run-up to Christmas is always a boom time for affairs because most people are back in the office and looking for some fun.”

The figures are based on IllicitEncounters’ own data on the numbers of Britons cheating.

Click here to find the figure for any location in Wiltshire - based on data from one million postcodes