Mobile phone users in the UK receive more than 33,000 messages and alerts a year, new research shows.

Britons with mobiles are receiving 427% more messages and notifications than they did a decade ago, while people are also sending 278% more messages than they did in 2008.

The latest figures come from a survey conducted by Virgin Mobile.

On average Britons spend 22 24-hour days checking their messages, the poll found - amounting to 26 minutes every day.

The survey found that the average UK adult receives 93 messages or notifications from social apps every day, the equivalent of 33,802 notifications a year.

Those aged between 18 and 24 have almost three times more messages to manage, receiving on average 239 messages and alerts a day or 87,300 a year.

The study found a contributing factor behind the surge in messages is the boom in group chats on platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook.

On average, Britons are members of six chat groups, although a small minority (2%) are members of 50 groups or more, rising to 7% of those aged 18 to 24.

One in four adults say they check a WhatsApp message instantly, with this increasing to almost one in three 18 to 24-year-olds.

Dr Dimitrios Tsivrikos, a consumer and business psychologist at University College London, said the boom in smartphone use was a positive trend and allowed consumers greater control over their lives.

He said: "In an age where we are constantly surrounded by endless tasks, always flooded with a sea of data, smartphones allow us to manage our lives in a way that suits us.

"From calendars and reminders, to emails and instantaneous access to an encyclopaedia of human knowledge, smartphones give us total control, right at our fingertips."