Age has overtaken gender as the most prominent form of discrimination in the workplace.

Onrec reports a YouGov survey of nearly 2,000 British adults that work or have worked with others revealed 11 percent felt they had been discriminated against due to their age.

This figure was three percent more than those who felt their sex had been the cause of their discrimination, putting age as the most prominent form of harassment.

The research was commissioned by HR experts Croner, part of Wolters Kluwer UK, and suggests age claims could overtake other forms of discrimination such as sex, race, sexual orientation, disability and religion or belief.

Gillian Dowling, of Croner, said: "Despite the massive efforts by organisations such as Croner to ensure all employers were aware of how to comply with age discrimination legislation, this form of prejudice has quickly become one of the more prominent forms of workplace discrimination defined by employment law."

Other findings of the Croner YouGov discrimination survey included:

1) 73 percent of respondents have never been the victim of discrimination on the grounds of age, sex, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation or disability.

2) 84 percent of respondents have never been the victim of harassment on the grounds of age, sex, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation or disability.

3) Four percent of male respondents experienced sex discrimination at work, compared to 11 percent of females.

4) Just three percent of respondents felt they have been discriminated against because of their race or disability.

5) Only two percent of employees felt they were discriminated against because of their sexual orientation or religion or belief.