According to new research from Uswitch.com, the comparison and switching service, the region in the UK where the most residents have experienced a blackout is the south-west, with 27% of people surveyed saying they have been plunged into darkness in the last year.

The second highest region for people who experienced a blackout was the east at 26%, followed by the south-east (26%), Wales (25%) and Northern Ireland (24%).

The worst-hit city in the whole of the UK was Plymouth at 33%, followed by Southampton (28%), Norwich (27%), Edinburgh (27%) and Belfast (25%).

Locations that experience the worst blackouts are scattered across Britain, which suggests it is not due to geographical location or remoteness. For example, 19% of residents in both Greater London and Scotland reported that they had experienced a blackout in the last 12 months.

There are 29 million homes in the UK, and with 21.6% of people surveyed saying they’ve experienced a blackout in the past year, that’s as many as 6.2 million homes.

Despite this, more than two thirds (68.9%) of people surveyed said their electricity supplier is reliable, however almost a quarter (24.2%) of people believe blackouts will increase following Brexit. It’s this uncertainty that led to 3 in 10 (29.6%) people in the UK saying they would like to live off-grid.