People in sunny seaside towns are the most likely in the country to pull a sickie.

Residents in Adur are three times more likely to take a sick day than the national average, according to a report by Public Health England.

People from Shoreham and Lancing have 5.5% of their yearly work days off while the UK average is 1.6%.

This equates to nearly three working weeks off sick compared to the national average of four days.

On average East Sussex registered at 1.5%, West Sussex had 1.2% and Brighton and Hove had 1.3%.

Councillor Ken Bishop, who has lived in Shoreham for more than 30 years, said people love the area so much they sometimes pull sick days to enjoy it.

He said: “It is a lovely place. I wouldn’t live here if it wasn’t.

“It is close enough to Brighton but also far enough way.

“You have all the facilities and amenities, you have the downs, the river, the beach and perhaps there are occasions people just don’t want to work. I know people throw sickies on nice sunny days.

“We live in a little bit of paradise so I wouldn’t blame them.”

Chichester had one of the best rates in the country with only 0.3% of working days lost to sickness.

Crawley, Arun, Horsham and Mid Sussex had a rate of just 0.9%, while Eastbourne had 1.3% and Lewes had 1.5%.

This figure for Adur is the highest in the country by 1.2% over another coastal region, Weymouth and Portland in Dorset, which sits at 4.3%.

The figures were published in Public Health Outcomes Framework.