Self-employed people make up 23 per cent of men and 11 per cent of women in the South, compared with 17 and eight per cent in the North.

But when measuring success by the number of people each entrepreneur employs, the North fares better. In the South each self-employed man has on average 2.65 people working for him, compared with 3.53 in the North; while for women the figures are 3.08 in the South against 3.48 in the North.

There are some exceptions to the trend: self-employed females in London, for example, create on average a further 7.82 jobs each.

The study from the universities of Hull and St Andrews and Cranfield School of Management suggests that the North-South divide is partly due to the differences in the regions’ job markets.

The North offers fewer jobs for relatively well-educated men, claims the study, pushing well-educated individuals into self-employment, while in the South self-employment is sometimes associated with lower ability and motivation.

The same is not true for self-employed women, however, with little evidence that academic qualifications have an impact on the possibility of women becoming self-employed.