The Evening Standard has overtaken the Daily Telegraph and now has more readers than any newspaper in the daily quality sector.
An average of 1,597,000 people read the Standard every weekday, which is 94,000 ahead of the Telegraph, 224,000 more than The Times and 477,000 more than the Guardian.
The figures, from the National Readership Survey*, show that the Standard's readership rose by 10 per cent in 2011 compared with the previous year.
By comparison the Telegraph lost seven per cent of its readers while The Times slumped 11 per cent.
The survey found that the Standard's readers in the top AB social class increased by 10 per cent, while its younger readership - those aged under 34 - increased by 26 per cent.
This younger group now accounts for 48 per cent of Standard readers and 44 per cent of readers of ES magazine, published free every Friday with the Standard.
*National Readership Survey (January-December 2011).
