Police Scotland investigates 22,000 missing persons reports every year, the force has revealed.

Most people who disappear vanish more than once and one person was reported missing 170 times.

Boys aged between 13 and 16 go missing most often but the majority are found within 24 hours.

Just 1% of missing people never return home and most of those are adult men.

The figures were revealed at the third annual International Conference on Missing Children and Adults in Dundee this week.

Speaking at the event, assistant chief constable Andy Cowie said: "Since April 2016, we have been compiling data on missing persons and the first full year of information provides us with a very clear picture of who goes missing and the locations from which they go missing.

"It is also illustrative of the non-crime related demand on Scotland's police service.

"People go missing for a broad range of reasons and usually voluntarily. But we also know that the majority of people who go missing are vulnerable.

"We need to do more to understand why people go missing, to prevent people going missing and to protect the most vulnerable people in our communities."

Police Scotland receives about 40,000 missing persons reports a year but not every incident leads to a fully-fledged investigation.