Despite the French joys of haute cuisine, champagne and cafe society, people in the UK live longer, earn more and have a better education system, the UN says.

The Development Programme survey also reveals Britain is a better place to live than Germany and Switzerland.

It ranks the UK the 10th most prosperous nation in the world, with France one place behind at number 11, Switzerland 12th and Germany 14th.

Canada takes the top spot for the sixth year in a row, with Norway coming a surprise second and beating the United States into third place.

The British education system helped boost the UK's position from 14th last year, due to more children attending school.

But the report's author, Dr Richard Jolly, said illiteracy was still too high in the UK, with Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development figures revealing 22% of children cannot read or write properly.

"In OECD data Britain scores very poorly, with functional illiteracy of 22%, which is almost as high as the US and a real shocker," he said.

"There is nothing to write home about in British education. The kids are in school but the quality is not great as the OECD figures show."

The bottom 22 countries are all African, with Sierra Leone the poorest out of the 274 countries surveyed.

Researchers found an increasing difference in earnings between the rich and poor countries.

In 1960 those in the richest 20% of the world's population earned 30 times as much as those in the bottom 20%.

Today they earn 74 times more, and the UN thinks the gap will continue to widen.

"The 200 richest people in the world have more than the combined income of the lowest 40% of the world's population," added Dr Jolly.

Net advantage

Technology like the Internet is helping the most prosperous stay on top, he said.

In places like Bangladesh, a computer can cost eight years' wages, while in the US the average citizen can buy one with the contents of one month's salary packet.

Some 80% of Internet sites are in English, although worldwide the language is only spoken by one person in 10.

"This is a two-edged sword - it cuts many people in, but it is increasingly cutting people out," said Dr Jolly.