The number of Renfrewshire residents who are registered to vote in elections has increased, according to latest figures.

Statistics recorded by National Records of Scotland (NRS) on March 2 last year show a total of 72,576 people in Paisley and Renfrewshire North were registered for UK Parliament elections, while 64,884 were registered in Paisley and Renfrewshire South.

This is compared with 70,605 and 62,935 in each of these parliamentary constituencies respectively in figures recorded on November 4, 2019, just before the last General Election which was held on December 12, 2019.

The figures for last March were the highest ever recorded for each of these constituencies, dating back to December 2010.

The number of electors on the electoral register in the local area also increased for Scottish Parliament and local elections.

In Renfrewshire, 141,667 people were registered to vote in these elections according to the March statistics, compared with 137,599 in the November 2019 figures.

Since the passing of the Scottish Elections (Reduction of Voting Age) Act in 2015, which gave 16 and 17-year-olds the right to vote in Scottish Parliament and local elections, the statistics have also included this age group.

In March 2020, this age group made up 1.6% of those registered in Renfrewshire for these elections.

This was slightly below the percentage for Scotland as a whole, with the figures showing that, out of the 4,227,700 people registered to vote at Scottish Parliament and local government elections nationally, 1.7% were aged 16 to 17.

Sandy Taylor, of NRS, said: “These statistics reflect an upward trend over the last couple of years in the number of people on the electoral roll.

“The latest data will be used to inform the recently started review of UK parliamentary constituency boundaries.”