African-American women have the highest self-esteem and women in urban areas have more body confidence than those in rural ones, Glamour has revealed in nation-wide survey.

Glamour recently teamed up with L'Oréal Paris for the survey of 2,000 women in all 50 states conducted by Harris Poll, looking at how women view themselves in terms of their looks, their career and their lives in general.

The poll found plenty of encouraging trends, including that it seems women are feeling more optimistic about their futures than before, with three quarters saying they are on track to fulfilling their life goals.

Looking up: African-American women are the most confident group of females in the US, according to a new survey

But while American women as a whole seem to be gaining confidence, there was a surprisingly stark difference when it came to race.

While 44 per cent of black women described themselves as successful, only 30 per cent of white women and 21 per cent of Latina women said the same.

Black women are also considerably more likely to describe themselves as beautiful, with 59 per cent saying so in comparison to just 25 per cent of white women and 32 per cent of Latinas.

According to Dr. Jean Twenge, a psychologist and author, this remarkable difference is no coincidence.

'Growing up, black women are taught you’re strong, you’re beautiful, you’re smart, you’re enough - and that mind-set is passed down from generation to generation as a defense mechanism against discrimination,' she told Glamour. 'The more confident you are, the better equipped you’ll be to deal with racism.'

Confidence also seems to vary state to state, with women in New York and California considerably more likely to be happy with their appearance than those in states such as North Carolina and Ohio.

Similarly, only 28 per cent of women living in more rural locations were willing to describe themselves as beautiful, as opposed to 43 per cent of those in urban areas.

There is also a gap in age when it comes to feeling confident, with millennials more likely than any other age group to say, 'I'm proud of the person I am becoming.'

Although the national level of confidence seems to be on the rise among women, it seems that appearance still plays a massive role, with 44 per cent saying that their looks are a key part of their personal identity - beating out other features like their career, their religion or even being a mother.

Around 35 per cent of women admit that they check their social media at least once an hour, but 74 per cent see social media as something positive in their life.

'On one level, these results are encouraging: As women, we feel optimistic about our lives now and think we're going to get where we want to go,' Glamour editor-in-chief Cindi Leive said.

'But the results are, like women, complicated - they show that we still too often judge ourselves harshly, among other things. It's also interesting to see the ways in which women of various zip codes, races, and sexualities are different, and what we all seem to share: Social media plays a big role in our daily lives, we care deeply about our financial future, are still struggling with our looks.'

Glamour and L'Oréal Paris intend to make the 50 States of Women an annual survey.