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Australia is most sinful nation on earth
WHEN it comes to committing sin, Australians have been declared world champions.
In the latest issue of BBC Focus magazine, British researchers number-crunched the global differences in the seven deadly sins and found, when you add up the wrongdoings, Australia is at the top.
The article, which argues that people are "bad" by nature, has found social data to compare nations under the categories of wrath, sloth, pride, lust, greed, gluttony and envy.
To determine a nation's quota of wrath, the researchers examined levels of violent crime by comparing incidents of assault, rape and murder per 1000 people.
For sloth, they looked at the number of days off workers have. For pride the comparison was made on plastic surgery rates per capita, and for lust they looked at the amount people spent on porn.
Greed was determined by the percentage of the population with annual earnings less than 50 per cent of the median value, gluttony was found by calculating how much per capita a nation wasted on calorie-rich fast food, and envy was described as being jealous of others' possessions and calculated using statistics for burglary, robbery and car theft.
For each of the sins, the researchers awarded 10 points to the nation with the highest score, and then decreasing points to countries that, for each sin, could boast of being in the top 10.
The results rank a top nation for each sin.
The South Koreans take home the title of most lustful, Mexico is the winner when it comes to greed, South Africans are full of wrath and those in Iceland are the best at both sloth and pride and, presumably, are proud about their slothfulness.
Americans' reputation for supersizing life is reinforced by their claim to the title of world's biggest gluttons.
Australians, perhaps reflecting the tall poppy syndrome, are the best when it comes to envy.
Overall, Australians are also the best, or perhaps worst, sinners, scoring 46 points, ahead of the US on 32 points and Canada on 24. The UK came sixth overall.
But Brisbane Anglican Bishop Geoff Smith said that we were all sinners but should strive to be better people and care for one another.
"I think Australians are very generous and compassionate people with a special identity," he said.
"In many ways the Australian lifestyle and character make us the envy of other nations."
Australia was ranked third for lust and gluttony, fourth for greed and pride, seventh for wrath and ninth for sloth.
WHEN it comes to committing sin, Australians have been declared world champions.
In the latest issue of BBC Focus magazine, British researchers number-crunched the global differences in the seven deadly sins and found, when you add up the wrongdoings, Australia is at the top.
The article, which argues that people are "bad" by nature, has found social data to compare nations under the categories of wrath, sloth, pride, lust, greed, gluttony and envy.
To determine a nation's quota of wrath, the researchers examined levels of violent crime by comparing incidents of assault, rape and murder per 1000 people.
For sloth, they looked at the number of days off workers have. For pride the comparison was made on plastic surgery rates per capita, and for lust they looked at the amount people spent on porn.
Greed was determined by the percentage of the population with annual earnings less than 50 per cent of the median value, gluttony was found by calculating how much per capita a nation wasted on calorie-rich fast food, and envy was described as being jealous of others' possessions and calculated using statistics for burglary, robbery and car theft.
For each of the sins, the researchers awarded 10 points to the nation with the highest score, and then decreasing points to countries that, for each sin, could boast of being in the top 10.
The results rank a top nation for each sin.
The South Koreans take home the title of most lustful, Mexico is the winner when it comes to greed, South Africans are full of wrath and those in Iceland are the best at both sloth and pride and, presumably, are proud about their slothfulness.
Americans' reputation for supersizing life is reinforced by their claim to the title of world's biggest gluttons.
Australians, perhaps reflecting the tall poppy syndrome, are the best when it comes to envy.
Overall, Australians are also the best, or perhaps worst, sinners, scoring 46 points, ahead of the US on 32 points and Canada on 24. The UK came sixth overall.
But Brisbane Anglican Bishop Geoff Smith said that we were all sinners but should strive to be better people and care for one another.
"I think Australians are very generous and compassionate people with a special identity," he said.
"In many ways the Australian lifestyle and character make us the envy of other nations."
Australia was ranked third for lust and gluttony, fourth for greed and pride, seventh for wrath and ninth for sloth.
