Almost half of all adults in Britain - 44 per cent – receive at least half their income from the state, either as public sector employees or because they depend on state benefits.
Figures obtained by The Spectator magazine showed that in some areas, more than six out of 10 people work for or live off the State.
In one part of South Wales, seven out of 10 adults depend on the state in one way or another.
The lowest proportion was found to be Horsham in West Sussex where, fewer tan four out of 10 (38 per cent) are state-dependent.
Based on an analysis of data from the Department for Work and Pensions and Office for National Statistics, the Spectator found that that Labour has increased the overall public sector payroll by 784,000 since coming into power in 1997.
In total, almost a quarter of the UK workforce – some 6.8 million people - now works for the State in one form or another, the magazine calculated.
As the Daily Telegraph noted: "The size of the so-called "client state" created by New Labour will invite suggestions that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have deliberately built up the public sector to boost the number of people who vote Labour."
