An area of Bath has been named as Britain's personal debt hotspot with the highest amounts of outstanding personal loan per person of anywhere in the country.
The BA1 9 postcode area has an average outstanding loan of £2,000-plus per borrower, according to figures by the British Bankers' Association.
The total still owed on personal loans in Lansdown and the villages of Kelston and North Stoke is said to be £540,763, an average of £2,311 per person.
Shoreditch in London and villages in Alnwick in Northumberland make up the top three, the figures reveal.
But the amount outstanding in the EC1V 2 area, between City Road and Old Street and the Angel tube station in London was £264,784, an average of £2,188 per person.
The BBA has taken information from banks, building societies and the 2011 census to come up with the top 10 postcode areas with the highest levels of personal loans.
However, the Guardian website said the figures do not include every personal loan provider and are based on data from Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Nationwide, Royal Bank of Scotland/NatWest, Santander, and the Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks.
These institutions account for around 60 per cent of the personal loan market. The BBA also redacted some data to "protect customer confidentiality".
| Personal Lending – Per Capita | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Postcode Area | Postcode Sector | Outstanding Balances (£) | Per Capita | ||
| 1 | BA | Bath | BA1 9 | £540,763 | £2,311 |
| 2 | EC | London | EC1V 2 | £264,784 | £2,188 |
| 3 | NE | Newcastle Upon Tyne | NE66 4 | £3,068,159 | £2,065 |
| 4 | PE | Peterborough | PE7 0 | £283,804 | £1,622 |
| 5 | TD | Galashiels | TD12 4 | £1,768,724 | £1,571 |
| 6 | NE | Newcastle Upon Tyne | NE13 9 | £1,417,903 | £1,513 |
| 7 | LS | Leeds | LS17 0 | £2,027,029 | £1,513 |
| 8 | RH | Redhill | RH6 7 | £8,738,750 | £1,471 |
| 9 | M | Manchester | M3 3 | £741,400 | £1,365 |
| 10 | PR | Preston | PR7 7 | £5,596,080 | £1,355 |
