Children are much more likely to be living with a step-parent in rural areas than in big cities as couples seek a fresh start, according to research to be published on Monday.

The study, by researchers from the University of Sheffield, explodes the myth that the British countryside is populated by traditional families while the inner cities are packed with broken families.

One in 20 children in towns and cities lives in stepfamilies but this rises to one in 5 in rural areas, says the research. But while adults might find their rural idyll, children often suffer from losing contact with one of their parents and leaving their friends behind.

The new study Identity in Britain: A Cradle-to-Grave Atlas also shows a stark and growing divide between the haves and have-nots in Britain. The Government’s efforts to integrate different social classes across the country have failed dismally and two distinct family profiles have emerged, separated from each other.

Those in the affluent A and B classes who own houses and send their children to good schools and universities, live beside and mix with each other, mostly in outer London and the M4 corridor. Similarly, poorer households live in communities with other disadvantaged families. The two sides of the divide, still mainly split between the North and South, rarely meet.

“Our conclusion is that Britain is becoming increasingly segregated across all ages by class, education, occupation, home ownership, health status, disability and family type,” said Bethan Thomas, co-author of the report.

Some of the data, gathered between 2001 and 2005, reinforce previous studies but the researchers have for the first time tracked where step-children aged 5 to 15 live.

Almost a million school-age children live in families with one stepparent but they are not found equally dispersed in Britain.

“The further from the cities you go and the further into what appears to be the monotonous rural fringes of the country, the more step-children you find,” says the report.

“The countryside and the suburbs, far from being the havens of conventional family life where marriage occurs before children and couples stay together and work, are increasingly the places to where new families move once they have formed and old ties have dissolved,” it adds.

“And the furthest extremes of the countries, the tips of peninsulas and remote coastlines, see the highest incidences of step-children.”

Daniel Dorling, Professor of Human Geography at Sheffield and a co-author, puts forward two explanations. One is that couples want to make a fresh start away from their former lives and the lifestyles that contributed to earlier relationships breaking down. The other relates to separated partners each owning small homes after a split and their desire to create a new, larger family home when they meet a new partner.

Suzie Hayman, a trustee of Parent-line Plus, which represents stepfamilies, said: “It could be wonderful for the parents but disastrous for the children. It is very important for children to remain in contact with the nonresident parent, usually the father. Children need both parents. They might also be leaving behind a network of friends.”

Other stark findings when data were mapped out included the link between where people live and where they go to university. Those most likely to attend the most elite universities (the top half of the 20-strong Russell Group) live either in university towns themselves or in London, the South East and parts of Scotland.

Haves and have-nots

— Most people living in Kensington and Chelsea own their £1 million-plus home, as do the majority of people living in the Orkneys, the Rhonda Valley, and Shetlands, where a house costs little over £50,000

— Children who go to independent boarding schools live almost exclusively along the M4 corridor, with some living in Scotland. Other affluent families move to get their children into good state schools

— Ten per cent of children who go to university attend elite establishments, including Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, Bristol, St Andrews, and Edinburgh. Most of them live in outer and West London, and round Cambridge, Oxford, and east Scotland

— The 40 per cent attending red-brick universities such as Newcastle, Leeds and Manchester live in the South and South East. Most university students in metropolitan areas in the North go to former polytechnics or former further education colleges

— Seventy-five per cent of adults in London aged between 25 and 39 do not have children due to peer behaviour and live an extended childhood in bars and clubs

— The rich and middle class stay with their peers with the As and Bs rarely rubbing shoulders with Cs

— Most adults (30 million) have two or more cars, 16 million have one car and 2 million have no car

— Young adults, aged 16 to 24 in the poorest neighbourhoods are nearly 20 times more likely not to be in education, employment or training than those in the wealthiest areas

— The average child in the wealthiest 10 per cent of neighbourhoods can expect to inherit at least 40 times the wealth of the average child in the poorest 10 per cent

— Between 40 and 59 the tendency to “get away from it all is very strong”. Widows and widowers tend to go to the seaside. Separated people head for cheaper coastal towns

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