Though the trees and tinsel may have been packed away for weeks now, there is one element of the Christmas period that extends well into January: the returns window.

With many retailers extending their policies to allow customers to send gifts back until mid-January and consumers making use of the January sales, the first few weeks of the year have seen over 154,500 parcels make their way back across the UK.

But which areas have returned the most packages during this time?

Evri, the UK’s biggest parcel delivery and courier company, has released new data looking at over 284,500 parcels to reveal the areas of the country which send the most returns in January.

Leicester takes the top spot on the list, with 2,365 packages being sent during the festive returns window in 2023, followed by Birmingham and Leeds. All three cities remained in the same position on the list this year compared to 2022 and have seen the number of parcels being returned increase by 22%, 11% and 6% respectively.

Birmingham is not the only West Midlands location to feature highly in the ranking, with nearby Stoke on Trent taking 5th place in 2023 after 1,281 packages were returned in the city. Leeds is also in good company, with neighbouring West Yorkshire city Bradford ranking 7th after a 4% increase in packages year on year compared to 2022.

Densely populated parts of the UK also expectedly make the list, with areas such as Liverpool, Glasgow and Manchester all sitting inside the top 15.