Young quitting city for country

The number of young families giving up city life and moving to the country has surged, a study revealed yesterday.

The 25 to 44 age group is leading the mass migration to the countryside, where they can enjoy better health, longer life expectancy and lower crime.

Since the early 1980s, the number of people living in the country has grown by 1.7million - equal to a quarter of the population in London.

The exodus from cities is now four times bigger than England's North-to-South movement of population, the Government report showed.

People living in villages are three times more likely to feel a sense of community than those in large towns.

They are also likely to have better health, with men in the countryside outliving their urban counterparts by an average of nearly 18 months. But the report, The State Of The Countryside 2004, highlighted some disadvantages of rural areas.

Country dwellers are continuing to lose easy access to Post Offices, banks and schools. Small supermarkets and petrol stations are also closing, while rural homelessness has jumped 30 per cent in the past five years as the price of country properties has risen.