Here, we summarise the international comparisons referred to under other headings.

According to police recorded crime figures, Britain has far more violent crime than any other leading European nation.  While France and Italy (with similar populations to Britain) recorded 325,000 and 147,000 crimes in 2007 respectively, the UK recorded 1,159,000 violent crimes.  Even Germany, with a population one third bigger than the UK, only recorded 218,000 violent crimes. (Source: Eurostat).  In 2007, 43% of all recorded violent crime in the 27 EU nations was recorded in the UK!  (The UK has about 12% of the EU’s population).   Even allowing for major changes in 1998 and 2002 in the way UK statistics were compiled (nearly doubling the number of violent crimes reported), the resulting 22% figure remains nearly twice as high as it should be, given that the UK has 12% of the EU population.

Total recorded crime in the UK in 2007 (adjusted for comparative population size) was 17% more than Germany, 56% more than France, and 72% more than Spain and 83% more than Italy.  (Source: Eurostat).  This is in spite of more people being locked up in prison in Britain (and consequently unable to carry on committing crimes).  In 2009, 153 people in every 100,000 were in prison in the UK, compared with 107 in Italy, 96 in France and 90 in Germany.  Spain had a higher total than Britain, at 164, but the EU average was 127.  (Source: Ministry of Justice).

58.5% of men in the UK admit to drinking the equivalent of a whole bottle of wine or more in one session, at least once a month.  This compares to 42% in Germany, 27.9% in France, 23% in Italy and 12.9% in Spain.  For women, the contrast is even greater: 34.2% in the UK, 12.7% in Germany, 9.7% in France and 8% in Spain.  (Source: World Health Organisation, quoted in The Times, March 18 2009). 

 A recent OECD report has found that the UK is the worst of all 30 member countries for drunkenness amongst 13 and 15 year olds.  (OECD 2009, Doing Better for Children).

Amongst 16-24 year olds, the UK has the highest proportion of problematic drug users in the 18 European countries for which statistics are available.  (Ibid).

Amongst 15-34 year olds, cocaine use in the previous year was 6.2% in the UK (2009).  This compares with 5.5% in Spain, 2.9% in Italy, 1.6% in Germany and 1.2% in France.  The EU average is 2.3%, while the corresponding figure from Australia is 3.4%, Canada 4% and the USA 4.5%.  In these figures from the Annual Report 2010 European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (published 11 November 2010), the UK total is higher than for any other country, of 28 surveyed.

Britain has the highest teenage pregnancy rates in Western Europe.  Figures for the largest nations are as follows (number per 1,000 women aged 15-19):

- Italy                          6

- Spain                       6

- France                     9

- Germany               11

- UK                          24

(Source: Age Specific fertility Rate (15-19 years) 2000-2005, www.childinfo.org, quoted in Sex and Relationship Education, op cit, p. 23-24)

Amongst the 30 member OECD countries, Britain has the fourth highest teenage pregnancy rate, after Mexico, Turkey and the USA.  (Doing Better for Children, OECD, 2009).
 OECD research has shown that, of all countries (not just the 30 member countries), the UK has the fifth highest lone parent rate, after Latvia, Estonia, the Czech republic and the US. (OECD Family database, 2009).

 A 2007 Unicef study of child wellbeing in rich countries ranked Britian the very worst of 21 countries surveyed.  Children in Britain were disadvantaged compared with those of other countries in a wide range of measures, including whether their parents had split, whether they had family meals together, whether their peers were "kind and helpful", whether they liked school, felt lonely, had been bullied, and felt satisfied with their lives. (Innocenti Reasearch Centre, Report Card 7.)  The Children's Commisioner for England, Prof. Sir Albert Aynsley-Green, said "The findings are disheartening but not surprising as they echo what children tell me on a daily basis" (quoted in the Daily Telegraph, 14 February 2007).  

A September 2011 survey of hudreds of children by Unicef, focusing in more depth on child wellbeing in the UK, Sweden and Spain, found that the materialistic culture had taken far greater hold in Britain.  "Parents from the UK often bought their children status brands, believing they were protecting them from the kind of bullying they had experienced in their own childhoods.  This compulsive acquision and protective, symbolic brand purchase was largely absent in Spain and Sweden".  "Many [parents and children in the UK] were at a loss when trying to combat the pressures [of materialism] in everyday life".  "In UK homes, parents were obviously struggling to give children the time they so clearly wanted; in Spain and Sweden, family time seemed to be part of the fabric of everyday life".