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BOYS aged 15 are 9in taller on average than their counterparts in the 1830s, according to the largest youth census report released today.

The survey of 54,000 schoolchildren also shows the extent to which Britain's pupils have embraced modern technology. It discovered that 60 per cent of secondary pupils have a mobile phone, more than 80 per cent use a home computer and 60 per cent have internet access. Sixteen per cent of primary school children have a mobile phone.

The census, by the Office for National Statistics and researchers from Nottingham Trent University, asked pupils aged from seven to 16 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland such questions as their shoe sizes and favourite school subjects.

Art was the most popular subject among pupils aged seven to 16 followed closely by PE physical education and sport. Maths was third, just ahead of information and communication technology. Religious education was the least popular subject - a reflection, perhaps, of the difficulty schools have in recruiting knowledgeable enthusiasts to teach it.

Manchester United was voted the best football team by pupils in every area except the North-East, which voted for Newcastle United, and London, Arsenal. Manchester United drew support from nearly 40 per cent of Welsh pupils, 33 per cent from Northern Ireland and a quarter of English children.

Surprisingly, most English pupils still walk to school, although more than a third travel by car - the preferred transport in Northern Ireland. The census also discovered that boys have increased in height at nearly twice the rate of girls since the 1830s, when girls at 15 were slightly taller. Today, boys of 15 have an average height of five feet eight inches compared to four feet eleven inches in the 1830s.

Height data of children were first collected in 1837 in an attempt to stamp out under-age labour in factories - a trend exacerbated by parents giving false ages so that their offspring could work. The project's findings are taken from the first 54,000 pupils to return data from 360 of the 2,280 schools that registered to take part in the census.

The next national census of population and housing is on April 29.

-- Anonymous, February 26, 2001