Selected statistics from Unicef's Report Card 7: an Overview of Child Wellbeing in Rich Countries:

16.2 per cent of British children below the age of 17 live in relative child poverty, compared to just 2.4 per cent in Denmark and 3.4 per cent in Finland.*

35.3 per cent of British children aged 15 aspire to low-skilled work -- jobs described as under threat by the OECD. In America just 14.4 per cent of children have similarly low ambitions.

70 per cent of British children live with both their parents, a figure greater than the US (60 per cent) but less than Greece and Italy (more than 90 per cent).

60.5 per cent of British children aged 15 spend time talking to their parents several times every week. That compares to 90.2 per cent of Hungarian children.

43.3 per cent of British children, aged 11, 13 and 15, describe their peers "kind and helpful". In contrast, 81.4 per cent of Swiss children are positive about their classmates.

30.8 per cent of British children, aged 11, 13 and 15, have been drunk twice or more: nearly four times more than the French and the worst overall. Finnish children are the next most drink prone, with 24.7 per cent.

34.9 per cent of British 15-year-olds have smoked cannabis in the last 12 months. In the Netherlands, where marijuana can be legally smoked, just 21.6 per cent of children have tried the drug.

38.1 per cent of British 15-year-olds have had sex: 10 per cent more than any other industrialised country, although the US was not surveyed.

43.9 per cent of British children, aged 11, 13 and 15 have been involved in physical fighting in the last year. More than the Americans but fewer than the Hungarians, of whom 48 per cent reported being in a fight.

26.7 per cent of British children, aged 11, 13 and 15 eat fruit every day, as opposed to 46 per cent of Polish children

22.6 per cent of British children, aged 11, 13 and 15 rate their health as "fair or poor", compared to just 9 per cent of Spanish children.

19 per cent of British children, aged 11, 13 and 15 like their school "a lot": more than Poles but less than half as much as the Norwegians.

*Child poverty is defined as children growing up in homes with equivalent incomes below 50 per cent of the national median.

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