REVEALED: The places in UK where 71% of people are organ donors... and the areas that have just 16% on register - how does YOUR hometown compare?

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More than two-thirds of people are registered organ donors in some parts of the UK while in other areas as few as 16 per cent of residents are willing to have their body parts transplanted after they die, an interactive map reveals. 

Some 6,133 people are on the transplant waiting list, including around 280 patients waiting for a new heart, with thousands of operations missed last year because families vetoed the use of their relatives' organs

Some patients are even waiting for a second heart transplant, but only 27 people have received one over the last decade, figures from NHS Blood and Transplant show, as the NHS begins a week of campaigning to urge patients to make their wishes known to their families.  

But as the map reveals, there are areas of the country - including parts of London and the West Midlands - where below a quarter of people are signed up to donate their hearts, kidneys, lungs or other organs after they die. 

During Organ Donation Week, NHS Blood and Transplant is encouraging people to talk to their families about their wishes surrounding organ donation. 

Zoom into the map on a desktop or mobile web browser to find your local authority  

The district council of South Hams on the coast of Devon has the highest registration rate in the country, with more than seven in ten people signed up to give away their organs after they die. 

The county-wide authorities of Wiltshire and Shropshire are also in the top ten, with over 60 per cent registered, along with the councils of Hart and Winchester in Hampshire, East Cambridgeshire, and Malvern Hills in Worcestershire.  

The London borough of Barking and Dagenham has the UK's lowest figure, with only 16 per cent registered, closely followed by the nearby areas of Harlow in Essex and the neighbouring borough of Newham. 

More affluent London authorities including the City of London - where the registration rate is 54 per cent - and the borough of Richmond-upon-Thames enjoy higher figures.

Outside the south-east, the local authorities of Leicester, Sandwell, Worcester and Stoke-on Trent also feature in the country's bottom ten, along with Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Corby where under a quarter of people are registered.  

In the north-east of England the county of Northumberland has the region's highest figure at 43 per cent, while the city of Sunderland is lowest with under a third signed up.  

Three of the top ten local authorities for organ donor registration are in Scotland, with the city of Edinburgh leading the way in the country on around 62 per cent, followed by the council areas of Argyll & Bute, Angus, and Midlothian. 

Monmouthshire is the highest-ranked of the 22 councils in Wales, with more than half registered, while Blaenau Gwent in South Wales has the country's lowest figure at just under a third. 

The data for the map, created by Esri UK, was gathered from an NHS table of organ donor registrations by local authority. The proportions were calculated from 2017 population estimates from the Office for National Statistics.

Anthony Clarkson, Interim Director of Organ Donation and Transplantation for NHS Blood and Transplant said: 'We'd like people to just talk to their families. Words save lives. 

'Please, tell your family you want to save lives through organ donation, because it could be the difference between life and death for someone else.' 

Last month it was claimed the new organ donation system in England is 'unlikely' to increase the number of donations, researchers have claimed. 

The new system for England, which will come into effect in 2020, will mean people, apart from certain groups, will be considered organ donors unless they have explicitly recorded a wish not to be. 

The map shows organ donor registration rates across 391 local authorities including county councils and London boroughs

Health bosses have highlighted the case of Gareth Evans, 45, from Stockport, who has been waiting for a new heart for more than nine years.

Put on the general waiting list on February 23, 2009, he is currently the longest-waiting heart patient on the transplant list, and has spent the last three months in Wythenshawe Hospital, south of Manchester.

He said: 'If there was enough donors I'd have had a new heart by then and I'd be back to work and carrying on. 'Nine-and-a-half years later and I'm still waiting. 

'If somebody saves a life while they're living they are classed as a hero - the final thing you could do is be a hero, save people's lives. There is nothing more marvellous than that.

'If it wasn't for my donor the first time round I wouldn't have my wife, wouldn't have the kids and I wouldn't have experienced everything I'd done in life.'   

Gareth Evans, 45, from Stockport, at Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester, has waited almost 10 years for a transplant