Ashley Madison leak reveals Cambridge as the UK's cheating capital

After 1.3 million Brits' data was leaked from extramarital affair website Ashley Madison

Olivia Blair
Monday 31 August 2015 19:46 BST
Comments
(Oli Scarff/Getty images)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Cambridge, a city normally associated with exceptional education and punting, has been handed the rather dubious crown of being the capital of cheating.

The claims follows the apparent hacking of the personal details of up to 33 million users from the Ashley Madison adultery site.

The leaked data reveals that the university city has the highest concentration of users of the website in the UK, according to the Sunday Times.

The dating website for those already in relationships recorded 5,094 members from Cambridge, which has a population of 123,900.

This equates to roughly one in every 20 adults in the city being on the site. An overwhelming majority (90%) of the Cambridge-registered users were male.

The Ashley Madison website claims around 1 in 7 of its users are female
The Ashley Madison website claims around 1 in 7 of its users are female (AFP)

This is not the first time Cambridge has topped the list when it comes to sex. A 2012 survey named the city as the most “sexually liberal” place in the UK.

In that study, one fifth of those surveyed said they would consider cheating on their partners. The data also revealed Cambridge residents had a third more sex than the average Briton.

The second and third placed cities for affairs, according to the Ashley Madison user data, were Reading and Norwich.

It has been reported that a large number of user profiles were potentially fake, predominantly those that were allegedly female. The investigation by Gizmodo revealed the extent of fake profiles, concluding: “When you look at the evidence, it’s hard to deny that the overwhelming majority of men using Ashley Madison weren’t having affairs. They were paying for a fantasy.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in