I was reading an article in the excellent BBC Focus magazine about how sinning is part of our inherent DNA, but they had an interesting section looking at the relative levels of sins grouped by country.
If you haven't read the article I'll show you the results here for Spain and the UK.
The report is broken down by the seven deadly sins:
Lust, gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and Pride, each listed with it's own modern equivalent:
Lust
"Thou shalt not ogle"
Spain - Not in top 10
UK - Not in top 10
Worst offenders are South Korea, Japan and Australia.
Gluttony
"Thou shalt not scoff burgers"
Spain - Not in top 10
UK - 5th
Worst offenders are USA (no surprises there), Finland and Australia.
Greed
"Thou shalt not exploit the poor"
Spain - Not in top 10
UK - 8th
Worst offenders are Mexico, Russian and USA.
Sloth
"Thou shalt not pull sickies"
Spain - 2nd
UK - Not in top 10
Worst offenders are Iceland, Spain, Noway.
Wrath
"Thou shalt not use violence"
Spain - Not in top 10
UK - 9th
Worst offenders are South Africa, Montserrat and Seychelles.
Envy
"Thou shalt not nick stuff"
Spain - 8th
UK - 5th
Worst offenders are Australia, Denmark and Estonia.
Pride
"Thou shalt not have a nose job"
Spain - 3rd
UK - Not in top 10
Worst offenders are Iceland, Cyrpus and Spain.
Top 10 most sinful countries
In order of most sinful...
1. Australia
2. USA
3. Canada
4. Finland
5 Spain
6. UK
7. Japan
8. South Korea
9. Mexico/ South Africa
In terms of the Spain Vs UK battle, Spain actually comes out on top here as a more sinful country, particularly in terms of days off work, money spent on plastic surgery and patriotism.
The UK's worst sins are that they eat too much junk food and have higher levels of theft.
So the winner in this contest is the UK. Any surprises there?