Australians have come out on top as the world's most envious people in a tally of the seven deadly sins.

BBC magazine Focus found Australians also scored highly for the other six sins, making Australia the 'most sinful' country on Earth.

"Sin-prone" Australia was followed by the US, Canada, Finland and Spain.

Researchers used a points system to determine which countries committed the seven deadly sins (lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride), the most.

The tally compared 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).

Australians ranked first for envy and third for lust and gluttony.

Despite a fondness for the occasional sickie, sloth was was identified as the sin Australians were least likely to commit, with eight other countries considered lazier.

Six nationalities were considered more wrathful and three more greedy or proud.

Highest in each of the sin categories were the US (gluttony), Mexico (greed), South Korea (lust), Iceland (sloth and pride), Australia (envy) and South Africa (wrath).