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Ideal Home magazine now has an average circulation of 205,659 copies an issue, up by 5.7% on the same period last year. This puts it just ahead of Country Living, on 204,235 copies per issue, up by 6.1% on 2009.

Nonetheless, NatMag was celebrating Country Living’s performance as the figure is the highest ever in its 25-year history.

Liz Kershaw, executive group publishing director for NatMag's Women’s Interest Group, said Country Living scored successes over the past six months with its "Readers’ Loaves" poster and a supplement called From Country to the City.

She said: "I think the success is due to the magazine being absolutely true to what it does. It’s about a way of being and a way of life, not just about things to buy, and that is probably a strength in tough economic times."

The only magazine falling in circulation over the year was GoodHomes, which was sold by BBC Magazines to Kelsey Publishing. Its circulation is down by 22.5% on 2009 at 70,108 copies.

In the gardening magazines, BBC Gardeners’ World saw circulation for the year down by 2.3% to 260,133 copes.

IPC’s home titles performed well across the board. As well as Ideal Home slipping into first place, 25 Beautiful Homes boosted circulation for the year by 9%, up to 112,117 copies, while Country Homes and Interiors was up 6.8% on the year to 90,163.

Yvonne Ramsden, publishing director of IPC’s homes portfolio, said: "Obviously I am thrilled with our results and the overall strength of the homes market in light of headline news about the volatility of property prices. I think the results across the market demonstrate a strong recovery in the homes sector and great performances from all our titles."

Andy Taylor, trading director at Carat, said that with the interiors sector relying little on bulk sales, it was a "really strong paid-for market that reveals the true DNA of the magazines’ readerships".