The results of the annual World Giving Index are out. And, this year, two countries share the top spot as the most generous in the world — the U.S. and Myanmar.
Myanmar and the U.S. shared a 64% generosity rating, followed by Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia. The U.S. is the only country to rank in the Top 10 for all three kinds of giving measured by U.K.-based charity CAF-America for the World Giving Index: Helping a stranger (No. 1), volunteering time (joint No. 5 with Tajikistan) and donating money (No. 9). Myanmar ranked No. 1 for money, No. 2 for volunteering time, but only No. 63 for helping a stranger.





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Myanmar’s lead ranking is mainly due to a high incidence of donating money, which rose to 91% from 85% reported in last year’s report. The World Giving Index is primarily based on data from research firm Gallup’s “World View World Poll,” an ongoing research project carried out in more than 140 countries in 2013; it encompasses interviews with over 130,000 people. The measurement for donating money is based on the number of people who give money rather than the actual dollar amount.
“It’s not tied to the wealth of a country,” says Ted Hart, chief executive of U.K.-based charity CAF-America. “If it were, you would see a who’s who of the G20 taking up the top slots.” Myanmar has a Buddhist majority and culture of giving, he says. Myanmar received a 91% rating of people donating money, which reflects the strong Theravada Buddhist community there that includes an estimated 500,000 monks. The practice of charitable giving or “dana” is integral to religious observance amongst Theravada Buddhists, he adds.
A prosperous economy does not guarantee higher levels of giving money. Despite the growing economies of “BRIC” countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China — only the latter has seen an increase in donating money to charity since last year, although all four saw an increase in volunteering. There’s also little consistency across the emerging “MINT” economies — Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey — with Indonesia the only one to have seen an increase in the proportion of its people donating money.
That said, America’s lead in charitable giving may also be a sign that people here feel better about the economy. “America has increased its charitable giving year over year,” Hart says.
Charitable giving rose 6% to 64%, meaning 16.9 million more Americans gave last year than in previous years. “The scars of the Great Recession are deeper than we may want to think,” Hart says. “But the stock market has never been higher. We see that as indication that we’ve weathered the recession and weathered it well.”