New data from Tripadvisor has revealed the areas with the dirtiest restaurant and pub toilets in the UK according to reviewers - and Cornwall is in the top ten.

The research comes as diners are encouraged to 'eat out to help out' by the UK government, as part of a new bid to boost the economy.

More than ever, cleanliness and hygiene matter for those looking to go to a restaurant, and certain areas of the country appear to have a better reputation for keeping their ablutions cleaner than others.

Read next: How the “Eat Out to Help Out” discount will actually work

The research, carried out by Latham's Hardware, scraped the Tripadvisor reviews of about 110,000 pubs and restaurants in the UK (excluding Northern Ireland) and isolated any reviews where the customer had specifically mentioned the toilets. That left the researchers with 12,041 reviews.

Of those 12,041 Tripadvisor reviews, data shows the comments are rarely positive, with the majority of keywords having a negative sentiment including “dirty”, “filthy”, “smelly”, “disgusted” and “awful”.

An interactive map can be found here.

Where are the dirtiest toilets in restaurants and pubs across the UK?

Unsurprisingly, London had the highest number of complaints by quite a significant margin.

However, to make the data fairer, the researchers created a “proportional” total of complaints that took into account respective population sizes.

When population numbers are taken into account, the study revealed that Edinburgh generally has the worst reviews followed by Glasgow.

Unfortunately for Cornwall, it was placed at number six in the top ten worst areas under these circumstances - although the county's vast number of top quality restaurants and pubs would be sure to disagree. 

Indeed, the Packet reported only recently the measures that pubs in the area had gone to in order to reopen safely for customers post lockdown.

Read next: The pubs raising the bar to keep customers safe as they reopen

And in other Tripadvisor reviews, Cornwall even makes it on another top ten list - for best fine dining restauarnts in the UK, with Paul Ainsworth at No.6 in Padstow ranked at number four. 

However, here are the worst locations for toilets highlighted on Tripadvisor reviews...

1. City of Edinburgh

2. City of Glasgow

3. East Sussex

4. Stirling

5. Isle of Wight

6. Cornwall

7. Cumbria

8. City of Bristol

9. North Yorkshire

10. Oxfordshire

Where are the top areas for toilet cleanliness?

Analysing the top areas for toilet cleanliness (taking into account population sizes), county and council areas in Scotland take the six top spots here too.

Bedfordshire, on the other hand, has the cleanest toilets in England closely followed by South Yorkshire and Northamptonshire.