One unscientific report has concluded it must be Down Under:

Australia is the most sinful nation on earth, as befits a country founded as a penal colony.

A BBC magazine show’s investigation has supposedly shown we Aussies are still born to be bad – coming out trumps in a global tally of the seven deadly sins.

While America is dominated by gluttony and greed, South Africa by wrath and Japan and South Korea by their lustful natures, Australians are the most envious people on the planet.

The tally was put together by comparing national statistics for plastic surgery (pride), theft (envy), violent crime (wrath), number of annual holidays (sloth), annual salary (greed), money spent on fast food (gluttony) and porn (lust).

Focus Magazine awards Australians the dubious prize of being named “the most sinful nation on earth” for scoring highly in every one of the seven categories.

Catholic priest Fr Bob Maguire said Australians had their vices, but they were also very virtuous.

“I think the people who did this survey are just jealous of we Aussies and rightly so,” he said.

“Australians like to indulge and enjoy the good things in life – we are open about that. But people forget that the mirror image of the sins are the seven virtues and Australians also have a lot of virtues on balance. We’re just too laconic to talk about the things we do right.”