World Giving Index Ranks U.S. Number One

People often claim that the United States is the most charitable country in the world.  Now there is some hard data to back that claim up.

The World Giving Index (WGI), a yearly report released by the United Kingdom-based Charities Aid Foundation, ranked the U.S. first overall for the first time, with an overall score of 60 percent.  It's quite a turnaround from last year, when it ranked behind Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and Canada.  Here are the top 10 countries from this year's report:

• United States
• Ireland
• Australia
• New Zealand
• United Kingdom
• Netherlands
• Canada
• Sri Lanka
• Thailand
• Laos

And here are some highlights from the report:

• The percentage giving money for the U.S. was 65 percent, tied for 10th with Malta.  Thailand was first with 85 percent.
• 43 percent of respondents in the U.S. said they volunteered.
• 73 percent of Americans said they helped a stranger this year, up from 65 percent last year.
• Ireland increased its overall score from 56 percent to 59 percent.

The news from WGI is very consistent with what we learned from Giving USA's data for 2010.  Given the number of natural disasters that have happened over the past year, it isn't entirely surprising that Americans are giving more, even during this time of economic uncertainty.  To read the rest of the data from the report, check out our article on The NonProfit Times.