Measuring the World's Most Generous Countries

Which countries’ residents are considered the most generous in giving to others? It’s a question worth considering at the end of the calendar year, when people are most likely to donate to charities.

Citizens in the United States are among the most generous in the world, according to an evaluation of global survey data. But depending on how that data is interpreted, countries in the Asia-Pacific are as charitable as the U.S., with two ranking ahead of America.

Earlier this fall, the World Giving Index ranked the U.S. as the world’s most generous country. The index, annually released by the U.K.-based nonprofit Charities Aid Foundation, based its ranking on 10 years of data from annual World Poll surveys by Gallup, the U.S. analytics and advisory firm. The surveys were conducted in 128 countries from 2009 to 2018, with responses evaluated from about 1.3 million people.

Over the 10-year period, survey respondents were asked if they had done any of the following in the past month:

The U.S. was followed by Myanmar and New Zealand in the World Giving Index. New Zealand was the only country that finished in the top 10 for each of the three questions respondents were asked.

“Top performing countries represent a wide range of geographies, religions, cultures and levels of wealth,” wrote the authors of the World Giving Index. “What they all have in common is simply an inspiring willingness to give.”

Among other notable findings from the World Giving Index:

And the countries where residents are considered the least generous? They were China, followed by Greece and Yemen, according to the World Giving Index. China was the only country to feature in the bottom 10 for each of the three questions respondents were asked.

However, the authors of the index noted that the number of U.S. residents donating money has been on the decline. In a Gallup blog post last year, Jon Clifton noted that applying the three questions just to Gallup’s 2018 survey would place Indonesia as the world’s most generous country, followed by Australia, the U.S. and New Zealand.

“The United States of America emerges as the world’s most generous country over the course of the study, but the numbers belie a dip in donations in more recent years and echo what we have seen in other developed countries,” say the authors of the World Giving Index.

The following are the 10 most generous countries, according to the World Giving Index.