The new north-south divide: Worcester's in the north and Lincoln's in the south

In truth, the South is just a short walk from Grimsby, say researchers. And the North starts at Gloucester.

A university study has found the most accurate way of dividing Britain in terms of health and wealth, is to draw a diagonal line which starts at the Severn estuary, splits the Midlands and ends at the Humber.

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"The country is best typified as being divided regionally between the North and the South," the study says.

"The idea of a Midlands region adds more confusion than light."

Experts divided the nation using analysis of education standards, life expectancy, death rates, unemployment levels, house prices and voting patterns.

The line marks wealth and health differences.

It separates upland Britain from the lowlands, and the hills from the most fertile farmland.

There is a £100,000 house price "cliff" along the dividing line, which marks the split between many of the predominantly Tory and Labour constituencies.

Those who go to university are more likely to attend the high-powered Russell Group of universities, which include Oxford and Cambridge, if they come from the South.

And there is a "missing year of life expectancy" north of the line which "nobody can explain".

Professor Danny Dorling, who led the Sheffield University study, said: "Beneath the line is where you start worrying about inheritance tax.

"Above it you should be worried about people being let off inheritance tax in the South."

He accepted there are affluent northern areas, such as Cheshire and the Vale of York, which "look and sometimes act' like the South yet remain northern.

"In the South, especially London, there are similar pockets of poverty," he added.

The decline of manufacturing in the Midlands means Coventry and Birmingham are now northern in characteristics, while Leicester is more associated with London.

But the "advantages" associated with the South are often misleading.

"In many ways things the South has which are working to its advantage are often disadvantages," said Professor Dorling.

"It costs more money to live in the South and you need more qualifications to get a job.

"A lot of problems in the North are also potential solutions in the South.

"There are people in the North who could be carers for southerners in their old age, but they are in the North."

The map was produced for the Myth of the North exhibition at the Lowry arts complex in Manchester.