UK 'bottom in foreign affairs'

England's pupils cared less about international affairs and had a worse attitude towards learning other languages than those in the rest of the UK, the British Council report found.

And British children were the least likely to go out of their way to understand current events in the world.

Overall, children in the UK scored worse in the research than those from the US, Nigeria, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Germany, China and the Czech Republic.

Martin Davidson, chief executive of the British Council expressed concern at the findings.

"Our schoolchildren cannot afford to fall behind the rest of the world," he said. "For the UK to compete in a global economy, it is vital that we encourage our young people to have an interest in and engagement with the world around them.

"We believe passionately in enabling young people from different cultures to share ideas and opinions, and in the far-reaching benefits this can bring to them in later life."

The research was carried out on behalf of the British Council by Ipsos Mori who questioned more than 4,000 11-16 years olds in 10 countries.

The survey found 69% of Brazilian children said they would go out of their way to understand current international events. But among UK pupils, just 28% said they would make an extra effort to understand world events, while the figure was 30% for children in the US.

Outside the UK, US and Czech Republic, most children saw themselves as citizens of the world first and citizens of their own countries second. Only 70% of British children felt that it was important to speak a foreign language for their future working lives, compared to 100% in Saudi Arabia and 97% in Brazil.