Survey ranks Ireland as fourth in world giving

Howard Lake | 20 November 2014 | News

Ireland is listed fourth on the World Giving Index just published by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF).

The World Giving Index 2014 score, which is based on 2013 figures, is calculated on an average of three measures of giving behaviour, the percentage of people who, in a typical month:

• donate money to charity
• volunteer their time
• and help a stranger.

Joint first place on the index is held by the United States and Myanmar, with the latter scoring 91% against 68% in the United States donating money. Myanmar’s top position is accounted for by the religious influence of Buddhists.

Ireland scores 74% on the index for donating money which is joint third along with the UK. The UK ranks joint 7th on the overall index. Ireland scores higher than the UK in ‘helping strangers’ and volunteering time.

When the index provides average figures for the 5 year period between 2009-2013 Ireland is ranked second.

This year, the United States is the only country to be ranked in the Top 10 for all three of the charitable giving behaviours covered by the World Giving Index.

Youth unemployment worldwide may be having an impact on an ability to donate money while women are more generous than men in high income countries, according to the index.

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.