Mobile phones are popular devices for listening to music

The study for Motorola said it was three times more than those surveyed in Germany, Italy or France.

A quarter of the 1,000 Britons surveyed owned a digital music player, the second highest ownership of the European states surveyed, behind Spain.

The UK also had the highest percentage of people aged over 50 using digital players, at 21%.

'Gender divide'

Motorola added the survey suggested that "the digital divide between men and women no longer exists".

In a similar study in 1995, the phone company found half as many women as men felt knowledgeable about technology as men.

But it said the research carried out for it in the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and France in September and October 2005 found women matched or bettered men in terms of mobile phone, digital TV, 3G and mobile e-mail use.