This article reviews the most up to date evidence on the prevalence of child poverty in Britain. It traces how child poverty has changed over the last 20 years, and how child poverty in Britain compares with that in other countries. Then there is a brief section describing the characteristics of poor children. It then reviews evidence of the impact of poverty on the well‐being of children drawing on the ESRC Children 5–16 programme project—Poverty: the Outcomes for Children (Bradshaw, 2001a). It concludes with a discussion of how the Labour Government is doing in its aspirations to abolish child poverty. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.