UNITED KINGDOM — Say what you will about the British, but according to a recent study, they love their online porn – in ever increasing numbers.According to numbers revealed in The Independent on Sunday’s first real look at the nation’s relationship with pornography, nearly 40-percent of all British men have visited adult websites during the past year. That’s nine million men, up seven million since 2000.

Add to that the 1.4 million British women who’ve downloaded smutty stuff during the past year and you get one in four British adults surfing the ‘net for porn, which makes Britian the fastest-growing market in the world for online adult entertainment.

The study, conducted by Nielsen NetRatings for The Independent on Sunday,, revealed the unexpected fact that women are one of the quickest climbing demographic group looking for mature content online. During the past 12 months, in fact, the number of women searching for porn has risen by 30-percent.

Interestingly enough, a quarter of all men between the ages of 25 and 49 have visited an X-rated site during the past year – driving the total number of British visitors to 2.5 million during the past year.

Some believe that the increase in numbers is linked to a similar increase in hardcore videos legally available during the past few years. In fact, the numbers are so impressive that more adult video titles were released during the past year than 18-rated films. The search term “porn” is the most frequently used word typed by British surfers.