The World Giving Index
Gain insight into the nature of giving around the world
Providing a “global view on giving trends” is the aim of the World Giving Index (WGI), the annual report of the Charities Aid Foundation that explores questions defining charitable behavior across the world. The report is based on highlighting three core aspects of charitable behaviors. It looks into whether the respondents have, within a given month, engaged in one of the following activities:
- Donated money to a charity
- Volunteered their time to an organisation
- Helped a stranger, or someone they didn’t know who needed help
The World Giving Index philosophy
The report outlines countries listed by their World Giving Index ranking and score, with giving behavior participation and ranking; commentary on the giving culture in each country, and a look at the World Giving Index rankings over the last 6 years.
CAF’s WGI is unique in that it considers factors that are not directly correlated with a certain country’s economic development or standard of living index, but have relevance in determining the attitude towards charitable giving on an individual basis. It is interesting to note that traditional or religious customs may affect the rankings of countries more so than economic prosperity. Thus, countries where for example the population largely follows the Theravada school of Buddhism — which encourages charitable giving — were found to rank higher on the WGI than countries that are far more prosperous in purely economic terms.
The 2017 World Giving Index – Notable trends
- For the fourth year running Myanmar tops the CAF World Giving Index
- Religious and traditional practices continue to shape how and when people give
- Africa is the only continent to see an increase in all three giving behaviours
- Every Western country in the top 20 has a decreased score this year
2017 World Giving Map
To read more about the World Giving Index and see previous issues, follow this link.
