Over the course of a year, the average British motorist spends 132 hours in traffic jams – working out at five-and-a-half days – but some have it far easier than others.

That's according to a new report from Sat Nav firm TomTom, which used satellite data from the past year to work out where in the UK was worst – and best – for driving delays.

It found that motorists in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh suffered most, with an average of 40% extra time added to journeys because of jams.

For a journey meant to take 30-minutes, people living in Edinburgh face an additional 12 minutes stuck in queues.

London was second, with motorists facing an average of 37% extra travel time. For a 30-minute journey in England's capital city, that's just over an extra 11 minutes stuck in jams.

TomTom head of navigation Heiko Schilling said: "Overall congestion is up by an average of 1% in the UK in the past year, a mild increase but an increase, nonetheless. 

"Only Manchester, Glasgow and Portsmouth have seen congestion levels improve.”

But things were worse overseas – with the planet's worst city for jams found to be Mumbai, India, where drivers faced an average of 65% extra travel time due to queues.

That means a journey which should take 30 minutes there actually takes 50 minutes.

Most congested UK cities

The most congested cities in the UK – with the extra time as a percentage over expected travel time – were found to be as follows:

Most congested cities on the planet

The research looked at traffic in 403 cities across 56 countries around the world.

It wasn't good news for drivers.

Ralf-Peter Schaefer, TomTom’s vice president of traffic information, said: “Globally, traffic congestion is rising. That’s both good, and bad, news.

"It’s good because it indicates a strong global economy, but the flip side is drivers wasting time sitting in traffic, not to mention the huge environmental impact.”

Here are the worst 10 cities for traffic jams in the world:

Least congested cities

The least congested cities in the world were Cadiz in Spain and Greensboro in North Carolina, USA, with motorists facing an added 9% on journeys.

In the UK, the least congested city was topped by Middlesbrough, with drivers facing just 19% travel time added to their journeys, followed by Preston, with 22% added, Stoke, Portsmouth, Glasgow and Reading each with 24% and Newcastle, with 25% added.

Schilling said: "There’s still a lot of work to be done, and that’s why we release the TomTom Traffic Index every year.

"It’s designed to help drivers, cities and transport planners to understand traffic congestion, and, most importantly, how to reduce it.

"Advances in journey planning, autonomous vehicles and car sharing schemes all promise to alleviate congestion in Edinburgh and other cities in the UK and around the world.”

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