A record number of people across the globe donated money to charity or helped a stranger in 2021, a study shows today.
And approximately 40 percent of the world’s population took part in charitable actions last year, according to the Charities Aid Foundation World Giving Index 2022.
The World Giving Index, compiled by the market research firm Gallup, measures generosity with three cross-cultural charitable behaviours: donating money, helping a stranger and volunteering.
In high-income economies, the rate of donations rose by 10 per cent, with a 4 per cent increase overall.
This means that 200 million more people donated to charity in 2021 than in 2020.
Helping a stranger remained the most widespread giving behaviour, with an 8 per cent increase from 55 per cent in 2021.
The latest edition of the index includes data from 119 countries.
Figures show that Indonesia is the world’s most generous country for the fifth year in a row, followed by Kenya, the US, Australia and New Zealand.
The UK is the 17th most generous country in the world, and ranked fifth among countries with the highest proportion of people who donated to charity last year, according to the index.
Neil Heslop, chief executive of the CAF, said: “Giving takes different forms around the globe, and even the definitions of what constitutes charity and generosity differ across cultures.
Our World Giving Index aims to measure generosity as expressed through three human behaviours. Encouragingly, the overall Index score has increased, indicating that people around the world have been engaging more in generous actions than during the previous year.
“Against an uncertain economic, social, and political backdrop, the World Giving Index improves our understanding about global giving. Covid-19 has affected the world’s poorest and vulnerable the most, which has also disrupted progress towards the UN sustainable development goals.
“Private donors and businesses are likely to be called upon to fill funding gaps and charities will need to work out how best to direct their limited funding for the greatest impact.
“However, in the wake of two difficult years and with further challenges likely to come, we continue to see great instances of global generosity.”