First study of its kind

New research reveals Scotland’s has 963 charity shops while there is 11,249 across the UK as a whole.

The study, published by the Charity Retail Association (CRA), accounts for every charity shop in the Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

More than 8.700 of these outlets are members of the association – representing 77% of the sector.

It is the first time the CRA has mapped the UK's charity shops.

The breakdown is: England: 9437; Scotland: 963; Wales: 549; Northern Ireland: 300.

Robin Osterley, CRA's chief executive, said: “Our hard-working research team have done a great job in producing the most comprehensive and reliable set of statistics available anywhere on UK charity shops.

“We are determined to fulfil our strategic plan goal of being a trusted and respected repository of information about the sector and its performance.”

A separate study compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopersfound found that 271 charity shops closed in 2017 and 202 opened – a worse closure rate than pubs across the UK.