THE number of women becoming nuns in England and Wales has reached a 25-year high, with many “young and educated” women seeing convent life as “an attractive choice”, says the Catholic Church.

According to the National Office for Vocation of the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of England and Wales, the surge in numbers — which, overall, remain relatively small, with women choosing to become nuns rising from seven in 2004 to 45 in 2014 — is due to a “gap in the market for meaning in our culture”.

Of those women who entered convents in 2014, 14 were aged 30 or under, the latest figures show.

Sister Cathy Jones from the National Office for Vocation told the BBC that although the Catholic Church is “never going to be at the place we were at 50 years ago, Catholic culture was at a very different place”.

“But the fact that more women are becoming nuns than there has been in the past 25 years shows that as a generation we have turned a corner.”

Of the 45 women who became nuns in 2014, 18 are living as “enclosed nun”, meaning they live a life of solitude and prayer, The Independent reports.

Sister Jones also told the UK publication that “in recent years many, religious congregations have grown in confidence in proposing their way of life, both through offering taster weekends and by participating in youth festivals, enabling potential ‘discerners’ to easily encounter religious and take the first steps to find out more about religious life”.

Most of today’s nuns were less visible in communities, she said, choosing to devote their lives to hidden work with trafficked women, or working as counsellors.

One such woman is 29-year-old Theodora Hawksley, a postdoctoral researcher in theology at the University of Edinburgh who has begun taking the first steps to a life of poverty, m chastity and obedience.

She told the BBC: “I don’t have to worry now about practical things like making a career for myself. I’m free to go where I’m needed and meet people at the margins.

“You are not on your own. It is an unusual life choice, but you are not the only one making it. There are plenty of people asking themselves the same questions.”

Last year, BBC Northern Ireland political reporter Martina Purdy quit her 25-year career in journalism to become a nun.

She entered the Adoration Sisters last October.

The most recent Australian research into nuns, however, reveals the opposite: the number of Catholic nuns has dropped to its lowest levels since 1901, with those still serving the church aged in their 70s and older.

Catholic Religious Australia surveys show the number of nuns has decreased by 63 per cent since the mid-1970s, and almost 70 per cent since their peak in the mid-60s.

In 2012, there were 4765 nuns in Australia, compared with 12,619 in 1976 and a peak of 14,622 in 1966. In 1901, there were 3622.

Between 1997 and 2008, only 206 women became nuns, with 42 resigning by 2009.

An average of 160 nuns died in each of those years.

Their current median age is 74, and 94 per cent are aged over 50.

A 2009 survey conducted by the CRA found that death, resignations, reassignment to other parts of the world and the closure of congregations were the main reasons behind the decline.