The UK is the worst place in the entire developed world for a child to grow up, according to the United Nations.

Unicef, the organisation's charity for children, says Britain has the unhappiest, poorest, unhealthiest and most neglected children of the world's 21 richest nations.

Its latest report shows the UK languishing at the bottom of 40 different indicators for child welfare.

The news will come as a big blow to the Government, which has made halving child poverty by 2010 one of its key goals.

The Unicef report, which the children's charity releases later today, says the UK lags behind in terms of relative poverty and deprivation.

Britain also fares poorly when it comes to the quality of children's relationships with their parents and peers, child health and safety, behaviour and risk-taking and young people's own sense of wellbeing.

The country rated higher for educational wellbeing but languished in the bottom third for each of the other measures, giving it an overall placing at the bottom of all 21 countries, along with the US.

The assessment, titled Report Card 7, Child Poverty in Perspective: An Overview of Child Wellbeing in Rich Countries, is the first study of childhood across industrialised countries, Unicef said.

North European countries dominated the top half of the table, with child wellbeing at its highest in the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

Unicef UK executive director David Bull said: "All countries have weaknesses that need to be addressed and no country features in the top third of the rankings for all six dimensions.

"By comparing the performance of countries we see what is possible with a commitment to supporting every child to fulfil his or her full potential."