A fascinating survey has revealed that most young women think about shopping nearly as often as men think about sex.

A survey involving 778 women, aged between 19 and 45, showed that seventy-four per cent of them think about shopping every minute.

Previous studies have claimed to support the widely-held belief that young men think about sex every 52 seconds, while the subject crosses some women's minds only once a day.

In the latest survey by the online fashion magazine Cosmopolitan, two out of five women described themselves as shoe and bag 'addicts', while the thoughts of more than one in ten focused on accessories or make-up. On average, those surveyed spent at least 30 per cent of their annual income on clothes.

"People think about things which bring them pleasurable feelings. The pleasure is usually in the anticipating and planning," psychologist Jane Prince of the University of Glamorgan was quoted as saying by The Mail of Britain.

"But so many women displaying this level of preoccupation, thinking about something once a minute, would indicate widespread addictive behaviour," she stressed.

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the poll for men was that half of the women surveyed said they preferred going to the market to spending time with their partner, and nearly as many acknowledged that they kept their shopping escapades secret from their partner to hide their level of spending.