The mission to eradicate child poverty in Britain by 2020 has been a cornerstone of Labour party policy since Tony Blair set out in 1999 "our historic aim - that ours is the first generation to end child poverty for ever". The government would, he promised, "break the cycle of disadvantage so that children born into poverty are not condemned to social exclusion and deprivation". Gordon Brown later echoed the commitment, describing child poverty as "a scar on the soul of Britain".
Despite its commitment to reducing child poverty, Britain still scores badly compared to other developed countries. Like the US, inequality is so deep in this country that the proportion of children in relative poverty remains high.
In 1999 Britain had a higher proportion of children in poverty than any other western European nation. Since then, 600,000 have been lifted above the breadline; we're still bottom, only now we share the ignominy with Italy and Spain. About 30% of children remain beneath the breadline and the recession is likely to increase that number. The government now concedes that it is unlikely to meet its target to halve the number of children in poverty by 2010.
In this UNICEF research child poverty is calculated by looking at the percentage of children living in homes with equivalent incomes below 50% of the nation median. The government in Britain uses a slightly different formula, classifying any family with an income of less than 60% of the British median as living in poverty.
The data is attached - and summarised below. You can also check out how individual local authorities do, too.