After hiding cameras in a series of car parks, researchers spent a month looking at how well 2,500 men and women were at various aspects of parking. They considered aspects such as technique, accuracy, time taken and space spotting ability to produce a 'parking coefficient' score out of 20.

And in a move which will undoubtedly cause arguments across the country women scored an average of 13.4, with men scoring just 12.3. However, when questioned about their beliefs, only 18% of women say they are better parkers than men and only 28% believe they're better parkers than their partners. Neil Beeson, a professional driving instructor who devised the experiment for NCP said:

"In my experience men have always been the best learners and usually performed better in lessons. "However, it’s possible that women have retained the information better. The results also appear to dispel the myth that men have better spatial awareness than women. "It shows that us men need to give our partners more respect when it comes to parking.

The facts don’t lie." The ‘NCP parking coefficient’, how the sexes faired:

Activity                                          Men                        Women

Appropriate speed                          64%                          92%

Good ‘pre-parking pose’                53%                           77%

Reverse into space                         28%                          39%

Forward into space                        72%                          61%

Speed of manoeuvre                     6 secs                        21 secs

Reposition shuffle                          29%                           56%

Central finish 25% 53%