Winchester is the self-employed capital of the UK, according to a new study.

Virtual phone service everreach analysed the national workforce concluding a fifth of Winchester’s 57,200 workers are self-employed – the highest proportion of any other area in the country.

Following Winchester to take second place was St Albans, with 18 per cent and Brighton in third with 17.9 per cent.

The regional breakdown of the country follows a recent Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) report dubbing Britain the self-employed capital of Western Europe. Two-fifths of all jobs created in the country since 2010 have come under the umbrella of self-employment.

Figures also show that the number of those self-employed has grown by more than 1.5 million in the past 13 years to 4.6 million and currently accounts for more than 15 per cent of the labour force.

Despite its role as the tech start-up capital of the country, London has just the fifth highest proportion of self-employed workers in the UK, with 17.3 per cent.

Dundee has Britain's lowest proportion of self-employed workers with 92 per cent of its 58,000 workers counted as employees.

Nick Mullen, CEO of Telefonica's everreach, said: “The number of self-employed people in the country has hit its highest level this year since comparative records began in 1992, with start-ups and small businesses accounting for a fifth of the UK's £3.2billion private sector turnover.”

Highest proportion of self-employed workers

1. Winchester

2. St Albans

3. Brighton

4. Carlisle

5. London

6. Bristol

7. Bradford

8. Cambridge

9. Wolverhampton

10. Chichester

...and the lowest

1. Dundee

2. Aberdeen

3. Gloucester

4. Newport

5. Sunderland

6. Peterborough

7. Preston

8. Worcester

9. Leicester

10. York