A nationwide survey of 2,000 consumers by hotel company Jurys Inn, found that 73% of Britons would have no problem enjoying a meal out on their own.

This change in attitude is largely being driven by Millennials with 80% of 25 to 34-year-olds saying they’re more than happy to dine out alone, with 22% having done so in the past week.

However, 16 to 24-year-olds are the least likely to enjoy a meal by themselves, with 32% saying they never would.

Moreover, Jurys Inn found that Brits were most likely to eat out alone at lunch, and least likely to do so at dinner.

Top 10 cities for solo dining Bristol (31.8%)

Birmingham (29.2%)

London (27.9%)

Brighton (26.7%)

Southampton (25.8%)

Edinburgh (25%)

Manchester (24%)

Newcastle (23.9%)

Cardiff (23.5%)

Leeds (23.5%)

Solo dining capital

As part of the survey, Jurys Inn found that Bristol was Britain’s top city for solo dining, with almost a third of Bristolians (31.8%) responding that they’d eaten out by themselves in the past month.

Jurys Inn findings revealed that Britain’s 'second city' was also the second city of solo dining as Birmingham recorded the second highest levels of eating out alone, with 29.2% of respondents from Birmingham having eaten out alone in the past month.

More than a quarter of Londoners responding to Jurys Inn’s survey claimed to have eaten out alone over the past month, with 27% claiming to have done so – compared to 25% of diners in Scotland’s capital, Edinburgh.

When asked what the biggest benefit of eating alone was, the top answer was ‘you get to enjoy time by yourself’, with respondents listing reading a book or magazine, people-watching and catching up on social media as the top three ways they keep themselves entertained while solo dining.

The full research can be found here.​