Canada ranks as third most-charitable country in new study

With the holiday season fast approaching, and Canadians preparing for one of the country’s most charitable periods, an international study has found the Great White North to be among the most giving countries on the planet.

Canada ranked third on the Charities Aid Foundation’s 2014 World Giving Index, behind only the United States and Myanmar of the more than 100 countries included in the study.

You may be asking yourself, “Myanmar?” We’ll get to that.

For now, let’s celebrate Canada’s charitable nature and willingness to give to the less fortunate.

The World Giving Index is determined by using data from the Gallup’s World View World Poll, which surveys residents of more than 140 countries on their daily habits, and giving each country a percentage score in the categories of helping strangers, donating money and volunteering time. Those three scores are compiled to establish each World Giving Index score.

The purpose is to determine which countries are doing the most for the less fortunate and encourage others to join in.

"This year’s index shows welcome increases in the numbers of people giving their money, volunteering their time and helping strangers," CAF Chief Executive John Low writes in the 44-page report. "It shows the power of those three measures to look at generosity, with the United States, the world’s philanthropic powerhouse, leading the index alongside Myanmar, a developing country that has endured many decades of isolation."

Here are the Top 10 most charitable countries:

The 2014 index underlines the point that wealthy countries do not have a monopoly on charity. Indeed, only five of the top 20 most-giving countries are members of the G20. Eleven other G20 nations are outside of the top 50 – and three of those don’t even fall inside the top 100.

Canada’s total rank of 60 per cent was help mostly by our willingness to donate money (71 per cent) and help strangers (66 per cent). When it comes to volunteering time Canada, like most countries, lagged with 44 per cent.

Canada’s top-three finish is something of a high mark. When considering the average over the past five years, we rank fifth, behind the U.S., Ireland, New Zealand and Australia.

Using the five-year metrics, Myanmar doesn’t make it into the top 20.

Myanmar’s top-flight charity status comes largely from the Index’s note that 91 per cent of its population – or 36 million people – donated money to charity last year. It was by far the highest rate of giving (Malta was second with 78 per cent).

The United States, meantime, was buoyed largely by the high percentage of people who were willing to help strangers in need. Seventy-nine per cent of Americans were willing to lend a hand, more than any other country.

The report notes that Myanmar’s jump to the top of the giving index can likely be tied to humanitarian efforts undertaken following Typhoon Haiyan in the neighbouring Philippines and other natural disasters in nearby China and Japan.

But let’s not celebrate our charitable nature too voraciously. Other recent studies on Canada’s willingness to give have not come out as rosy.

Imagine Canada noted last year that it appeared the responsibility of donating to charity was falling to fewer people. While 30 per cent of Canada were filing charitable donation claims on their tax returns in the 1990s, that number was down to 23 per cent in 2011. Imagine Canada did find that the average annual donation had increased from $458 in 1984 to $1,437 in 2010 – or $748 if you weigh it against the dollar value in 1984.

The Fraser Institute’s latest Generosity Index also found the Canadians were less generous than Americans, with both the frequency and rate of donations falling below our neighbours to the south.

Much of this is simply playing Devil’s advocate, however, and pointing out that there is always room for improvement.

A third-place ranking is rather impressive, Canada. But don’t get complacent, especially with the holiday season just around the corner.