South Ayrshire has one of the highest number of homeless deaths rates in the country, new figures show.

The area has a rate of 115.3 homeless deaths per million of population in 2020.

Only West Dunbartonshire and Inverclyde had a higher rate than this in Scotland.

There were eight identified homeless deaths in South Ayrshire during this time.

The death rate for the area has decreased from 2019, when we had a rate of 120.3.

However, it is still a huge jump from our 2017 and 2018 stats, which were 16.3 and 15.4, respectively.

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.