People in Newport are more likely to cheat on their partner than residents of any other place in Wales, according to a new “index of infidelity”. Figures from Illicit Encounters - an online dating site for married men and women - have revealed that 9,162 in Newport are members.
That works out as 5.86% of the population, or around one in 17 - which is the 26th highest proportion of people using the cheating site in the UK, and the highest in Wales. Cardiff has the most members in the country on Illicit Encounters, a total of 20,683 people, which equates to 5.61% of the population and puts the city at 28th on the Infidelity Index.
And Swansea is not far behind, with 13,743 would-be cheats, which is 5.57% of the population and the 30th highest in the UK. Illicit Encounters mapped the location data of each of their members against each city’s adult population to find the most adulterous places in the country. Read more: Mistress shares four ways to tell your man is cheating, and says it's your fault
All three are among the top 50 cities in the UK where people are most likely to cheat on their partners. Newport ranks 26th on the list, Cardiff ranks 28th and Swansea is 30th.
Illicit Encounters also maps the towns with the highest proportion of cheaters. Of the 360 towns listed in the index, 13 of them are in Wales. In Wales, Penarth in The Vale of Glamorgan is the town with the most cheaters, with 1,054 members, or 3.87% of the population, which makes it the 12th most adulterous town in the UK.
After Penarth, Aberystwyth in Ceredigion has the highest ratio of cheats (2.61% of the population), then Rhyl (2.38%), Pontypool (2.26%), and Ebbw Vale (2.18%).
The site’s Infidelity Index shows that Bath is the city where people are most likely to cheat on their partners, with 8,310 members (6.89% of the city’s population). Bath is followed by Chester, where 6.88% of the population are members, then Brighton and Hove (6.87%), Nottingham (6.86%), and Lichfield (6.83%).
At a town level, people are most likely to have an affair in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, where a total of 2,994 people are Illicit Encounters members - 5.71% of the population, or about one in 18.
Welsh towns listed in the Infidelity Index:
Rank, town, wider area, percentage of city population, number of affairs
- 12, Penarth , The Vale of Glamorgan, 3.87, 1,054
- 55, Aberystwyth , Ceredigion, 2.61, 472
- 81, Rhyl , Denbighshire, 2.38, 599
- 91, Pontypool, Torfaen, 2.26, 639
- 97, Ebbw Vale , Blaenau Gwent, 2.18, 395
- 121, Merthyr Tydfil, 1.98, 866
- 153, Caerphilly , 1.59, 660
- 180, Port Talbot , Neath Port Talbot 1.42, 529
- 196, Neath , Neath Port Talbot 1.27, 526
- 242, Cwmbran , Newport, 1.08, 505
- 254, Bangor, Gwynedd, 1.03, 513
- 297, Llanelli , Carmarthenshire, 0.89, 392
- 326, Ystrad Mynach , Caerphilly, 0.78, 150
The figures are revealed after Only Fans model Amy Kupps - who says she only dates married men and receives up to £40,000 in gifts from her lovers each month - shared her secrets of how to catch a cheating spouse.
The 32-year-old former teacher, who says “you only have yourself to blame” if your partner is cheating, warned people to be on the lookout for signs including a hidden work phone or a new credit card.
She said the first lie a cheater will tell their partner is that they’re “meeting up with a friend for a quick drink”.
She said: “They’ll tell their wives not to wait up all night waiting for them.”
According to Illicit Encounters, 20,000 people cheat on their partners using the site every week.
Since it launched almost 20 years ago, Illicit Encounters says more than 1.1 million people across the UK have signed up to meet someone to have “the occasional bit of flirtatious chat, a regular coffee date, or a full-blown affair”.
It says it provides a meeting place for “like-minded married and attached people” who are “all looking for a little romance outside their current relationship”.
You can find the local ''adultery figures'' for your postcode using their Infidelity Index here which is based on data from one million postcodes.
