Australian men make the worst husbands in the world because they loathe helping out with the housework, a British study claims.

An economist from Oxford University found that women wanting to settle down were better off finding a bloke from Scandinavia, the United States or Britain than Australia.

Study author Dr Almudena Sevilla-Sanz said that based on her study of 12 developed countries, men and women were both more likely to cohabit or marry if they believed their partner would help out with the household chores and child care.

But it appears that when it comes to finding a husband willing to help out, Australian women have a tough time.

Dr Sevilla-Sanz's study ranked Australia as the least egalitarian society, making its men unattractive marriage partners because they were more unlikely to do household chores.

Norway, Sweden, Great Britain, the US and Northern Ireland were judged to be the most egalitarian countries.

Next were the Netherlands, Ireland, Spain, New Zealand, Japan, Germany, Austria and Australia in last place.

"In egalitarian countries you might, in principle, expect to see women preferring to remain single rather than face the prospect of spending more time doing household chores," Dr Sevilla-Sanz said.

"However, this study shows that in egalitarian countries there is less social stigma attached to men doing what was traditionally women's work.

"For instance, if paternity leave is the social norm, more men take it.

"This leads to men in egalitarian societies taking on more of a domestic role, so the likelihood of forming a harmonious household becomes greater, resulting in a higher proportion of couples setting up households in these countries."

The study's findings were based on a survey of 13,500 men and women aged 20 to 45 from each of the 12 countries.

Each was asked about their attitudes to gender, housework and childcare responsibilities.

The study found that women living in less egalitarian countries were 20 to 50 per cent less likely to live with a man compared with women in more egalitarian societies.

The study, titled Household Division of Labour and Cross-Country Differences in Household Formation Rates, is due to be published in the Journal of Population Economics.

- AAP