West Dunbartonshire has the highest homeless death rate in the country, new figures show.

The area has a rate of 196.3 homeless deaths per million of population in 2020.

There were 11 identified homeless deaths in the local authority during this time.

The death rate for West Dunbartonshire has rocketed from 2019, when the area had a death rate of 37.2.

Next in the rankings is Inverclyde, with a rate of 123.1 deaths per million people, followed by South Ayrshire on 116.3.

An estimated 256 people died while experiencing homelessness in Scotland in 2020, according to new figures published by National Records of Scotland, which is an increase of 40 deaths when compared to the previous year.

It should be noted that deaths are sometimes recorded outside of the local authority where a person had applied for homelessness support.

For example if they were placed in temporary accommodation in another local authority area or they were in hospital at the time of their death.