We live increasingly urbanised, hectic lifestyles and rely more on convenience to allow us to pack more into the day

Gavin Humphries Datamonitor

Gavin Humphries, director of analysis at Datamonitor, said: "Consumers are attempting to make their lives easier by making more of convenience.

"However, with each new method of convenience come new concerns, be they about internet security or the dietary effects of eating certain food.

"As a result, 2001 has seen life become more stressful for many consumers as we live increasingly urbanised, hectic lifestyles and rely more on convenience to allow us to pack more into the day."

The review assesses areas such as food, drink, and money, drawn mainly from industry figures.

The number of millionaires in Britain has grown at over 17% per year since 1995 to 73,990 last year.

Britons are getting stressed by trying to relax

Datamonitor says 7.9% of the population can now be classed as "mass affluent" - having liquid assets of �30,000 to �200,000.

But levels of debt are also increasing. Total consumer credit card debt stood at just over �128bn at the start of 2001 - equivalent to �2,810 per adult of working age in the UK, and up from �1,700 per person in 1996.

Despite it being a rocky year for the internet in many ways, UK consumers continued to take to it with gusto - 7.52m now bank online, and grocery sales are approaching �399m, said the report.

Diet contradictions

The report said organic food sales, driven by scares about genetic modification and BSE, have soared from �156m in 1995 to �529m last year.

Datamonitor forecast that British consumers would become Europe's biggest spenders on organic food by 2005.

Depression appears to be on the up

But Britons spent �2.24bn on ready-meals this year, second only to Sweden for the amount bought per person.

Meanwhile, alcohol consumption increased, particularly among the 18 to 34-year-old age group who currently drink around 2.68bn litres of drink a year - with the figure expected to rise to 3.02bn litres by 2004.

Cases of depression also increased, with about 2.7m adults - or 9.3% of the adult population - suffering from the illness, according to extrapolations from various surveys.

Women made up two-thirds of all those people experiencing depression, the study reported.

However Nick Alcock, Datamonitor healthcare analyst, suggested there might be some good news hidden in this.

The young are leading the stampede towards alcohol

"One key factor for the increasing level of diagnosed cases has been the higher profile that the condition has received.

"With coverage of drugs such as prozac, and celebrity sufferers bringing depression to the media spotlight, depression has to some extent be de-stigmatised.

"This has meant that more people feel able to approach their GPs and receive diagnosis and treatment."