LOVE is no longer just a couple thing. A government-funded report has identified a new generation of women who do not consider infidelity to be taboo but are ready to conduct concurrent relationships with two or more lovers.

One in 10 women says she had an “overlapping” relationship in a 12-month period compared with one in 20 a decade a go. The figures show women are rapidly catching up with men in the infidelity stakes.

The rising number of affairs is detailed in a report by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) entitled Seven Deadly Sins. It also shows that just one in 100 of people now marry the person they first have sex with, compared with the majority in the 1950s.

Kaye Wellings, professor of sexual health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and author of the section on lust in the report, said: “There used to be absolute rules about sexual behaviour. But in an increasingly secular society people behave according to how they think they ought to treat people.

“There is now a period for many young people, often before they settle down, when they may have concurrent partners. More women are now in the workplace and there are the opportunities for them to have other partners if they want to.”

The infidelity gap between the sexes is closing. In a 1990 study, twice as many men as women said they had been unfaithful, but in recent research about 15% of men said they had conducted an affair during a 12- month period compared with 10% of women.

In the 1990 study more than six out of 10 women thought that one-night stands were wrong compared with only three in 10 men. In the most recent study more than half the women said they did not think one-night stands were wrong.

Women have not welcomed all aspects of their new sexual freedoms. They are twice as likely to regret their first experience of intercourse.

The increasing willingness to have affairs is reflected in what the report describes as the “peccadilloes of celebrity”. Many fans did not condemn the fling last year between David Beckham, the footballer, and Rebecca Loos, his personal assistant, but accepted it as an aspect of modern life.

The American television series Sex and the City has also been credited with changing attitudes. Its four female characters are candid about their sex lives, have multiple partners and discuss the concept of the “cheating curve”, which links the definition of infidelity to the desire to cheat.

Researchers believe that the women most likely to have concurrent relationships are those who have not yet married or are living with a boyfriend.

Sarah, 23, a student in London, said she saw no problems with being in a casual relationship with two men at the same time. “You don’t want to miss out on anything,” she said. “You don’t have a duty to someone if he’s not a boyfriend and you’re just dating. You’re allowed to look around.”

It is not just the young who are straying. People in long-term relationships are also now more likely to be unfaithful, even though four out of five say that infidelity is wrong.

David Miller, who runs Loving Links, a dating service for people already in relationships, said: “When I meet people at parties and tell them what I do, they say ‘That’s outrageous’. Then they call the next day.

“We get equal numbers of men and women coming to us. Nobody goes into marriage wanting to commit adultery, but people find themselves in tired, celibate relationships and then it’s useful that we exist.”

The Seven Deadly Sins report also says that envy has played a significant role in the increase of household debt and that students, young people and single women were most likely to be envious of others.

In a section on anger it claims that single people in their thirties are more likely than couples to have angry feelings.

The report states that sexual changes have been more marked for women than for men. Wellings said it was important that young people were taught about the impact of their sexual behaviour on other people.

“Half of the women who had sex before the age of 16 say it was too early,” she said.

“Young women have got to have the skills and confidence to resist peer pressure to have sex and that is something sex education should address.”

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