It is little wonder, therefore, that finding income remains a key focus for investors and for those providing investment products working out new and ingenious ways of delivering it to the consumer is becoming more challenging.

In the past 12 months all eyes have been fixed on the UK Equity Income sector, primarily because of the sector shake-up expected in the wake of the departure of Neil Woodford from Invesco Perpetual next month.

But investors should not get caught up in the story of the moment, as there is a wider income universe out there.

This has been highlighted by the recent launch of the Henderson Global Dividend index. Its research appears a number of times, not least because there isn’t anything similar in terms of breadth and depth of detail. The UK has the Capita Dividend Monitor, but this is the first in-depth look at income on a global scale, and the findings are revealing.

Emerging markets, while pretty low on everyone’s radar so far this year because of growth concerns and the impact of macroeconomic and political decisions, are actually a reasonable source of income, particularly from China.

Meanwhile, Australia dominates the Asia Pacific region, and within Europe the overlooked region seems to be Scandinavia. Although Europe as a whole could be the turnaround region of 2014, with the peripheral economies starting to see the fruits of austerity pay off, opportunities in this area are increasing.

Diversification is a word used so often in investment it often loses its meaning as managers, providers and commentators emphasise it at every opportunity.

But in the case of searching for income, the truth of the matter is that investors need to start looking beyond their own shores. In the UK the top 15 dividend paying companies accounted for 57 per cent of all the UK dividends distributed. Concentration is clearly a risk, but not just in regions, but also in sectors.

With a continually evolving investment universe, income doesn’t have to be about equities and dividends, it can include investment trusts, property and fixed income. The final asset allocation is obviously dependent on the investor but in a post-RDR world and with interest rates predicted to remain low until at least summer next year, it doesn’t pay to be blinkered to the wider opportunities.

Nyree Stewart is features editor at Investment Adviser