Dating is in decline among young people, a major study has found.

Those born between 1995 and 2012, dubbed the “i-Generation”, are noticeably less interested in romance than their millennial predecessors, according to a new book by Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University.

Teenagers from this group have grown up with social media and smart phones, meaning they spend far more time socialising with one another online than they do in person.

The decline in dating corresponds to dwindling sexual activity among this cohort, Prof Twenge has found.

Drawing on surveys of 11 million young people and a series of in-depth interviews she found that teenagers in their final year of school are going out less often than 13-year-olds did as recently as 2009.

Prof Twenge also noted that 56 per cent of 14 to 18-year-olds went out on dates in 2015 whereas for Generation X and Baby Boomers, it was around 85 per cent.

Meanwhile, sexual activity among 14 and 15-year-olds has dropped by almost 40 per cent since 1991. The average teenager now has had sex for the first time by the time they are 17-years-old, a full year later than the average generation X.