One in British children can't point to the UK on a map of the world

The world is a big place, and indeed, the UK just a small mass of land in amongst it all. That could be why more than three quarters of British Children can’t locate it on a world map.

That was the worrying figure that emerged after a study of 1000 children between six and 10 years old.

An even more damning indictment on the breadth of children’s education, is that 41 per cent of children don’t even know that the UK is in Europe.

This is despite the children surveyed being relatively well-travelled; 78 per cent of the children had been abroad, 48 per cent of them having been to Spain by the aged of 10 and 42 per cent to France.

However, it’s not just the UK that get’s overlooked. Not even the children’s European holidays could help them locate Spain (45 per cent) or France (36 per cent) on a map.

The USA came us as the third most popular holiday destination, but despite 19 per cent of those children surveyed having been there, 42 per cent didn’t know where it was. Five per cent believe it shares a border with the UK.

Thankfully, when the children were asked to cast their sights further afield, 78 per cent correctly identified Australia. With it’s sharks, hairy spiders and stingrays, it probably would be firmly on your radar.

Some 73 per cent of the children also knew where Russia was.

Heathrow airport is now decorated with giant world globes to help children locate their destination, and indeed their location.