THE over-50s are now so confident about their bodies that at least one in ten would pose nude for a photograph, new figures show.

Research shows many have been inspired by the Women's Institute members who, in 1999, stripped for a charity calendar and then had their story told in the 2003 film Calendar Girls.

The figures show 43 per cent of women in the 50-plus age group are happy with their bodies, even as younger generations increasingly turn to cosmetic surgery to improve theirs.

One in three mature females say they have become more confident about their shape as they have aged. And 90 per cent say their generation is more at ease with their bodies than their mothers were at the same age.