The following list of countries by charitable donation, prima facie, measures the generosity of nations by showing the total charitable donations from individuals within the nation, as a percentage of the nation's GDP.
The figures were published in February 2016 by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) in its report titled Gross Domestic Philanthropy. [1] The report only considers the 24 countries about which CAF was able to collect comprehensive data.
Rank | Country | Inflated GDP (USD2005, billions) | Amount given (USD, billions) | Charitable giving as a % of GDP |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | United States | 17,936.0 | 258.5 | 1.44 |
2 | New Zealand | 142.7 | 1.1 | 0.79 |
3 | Canada | 1609.0 | 12.4 | 0.77 |
4 | United Kingdom | 3,203.6 | 17.4 | 0.54 |
5 | South Korea | 1,369.9 | 6.9 | 0.50 |
6 | Singapore | 252.5 | 1.0 | 0.39 |
7 | India | 1,062.5 | 4.0 | 0.37 |
8 | Russia | 1,211.0 | 4.2 | 0.34 |
9 | Italy | 2,114.4 | 6.4 | 0.30 |
10 | Netherlands | 859.8 | 2.6 | 0.30 |
11 | Australia | 994.4 | 2.3 | 0.23 |
12 | Ireland | 273.3 | 0.6 | 0.22 |
13 | Germany | 3,894.4 | 6.6 | 0.17 |
14 | Sweden | 520.5 | 0.9 | 0.16 |
15 | Austria | 424.2 | 0.6 | 0.14 |
16 | Finland | 253.4 | 0.3 | 0.13 |
17 | Japan | 5,793.6 | 7.0 | 0.12 |
18 | France | 2,692.2 | 3.0 | 0.11 |
19 | Norway | 418.6 | 0.5 | 0.11 |
20 | Switzerland | 569.3 | 0.5 | 0.09 |
21 | Spain | 1,441.0 | 0.7 | 0.05 |
22 | Czech Republic | 182.3 | 0.1 | 0.04 |
23 | Mexico | 1,064.5 | 0.3 | 0.03 |
24 | China | 6,388.2 | 1.9 | 0.03 |
The economy of the Bahamas is dependent upon tourism and offshore banking. The Bahamas is the richest country in the West Indies and is ranked 14th in North America for nominal GDP. It is a stable, developing nation in the Lucayan Archipelago, with a population of 391,232 (2016). Steady growth in tourism receipts and a boom in construction of new hotels, resorts, and residences had led to solid GDP growth for many years. The slowdown in the Economy of the United States and the September 11 attacks held back growth in these sectors from 2001 to 2003.
Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced in a specific time period by a country or countries. GDP is more often used by the government of a single country to measure its economic health. Due to its complex and subjective nature, this measure is often revised before being considered a reliable indicator.
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistical composite index of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators, which is used to rank countries into four tiers of human development. A country scores a higher level of HDI when the lifespan is higher, the education level is higher, and the gross national income GNI (PPP) per capita is higher. It was developed by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul-Haq and was further used to measure a country's development by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)'s Human Development Report Office.
Bonyads are charitable trusts in Iran that play a major role in Iran's economy. They control an estimated 20% of Iran's GDP, and are second only to the oil industry in manufacturing, trading, and real estate development in Iran. As of 2010, the largest bonyad is the Mostazafan Foundation, worth approximately $10 billion. In addition to large national bonyads like the Mostazafan Foundation, there are numerous bonyads affiliated with local clerics in "almost every" Iranian town. All are answerable only to the Supreme Leader of Iran. As of 2008, bonyads employ somewhere between 400,000 and 5 million Iranians.
A donation is a gift for charity, humanitarian aid, or to benefit a cause. A donation may take various forms, including money, alms, services, or goods such as clothing, toys, food, or vehicles. A donation may satisfy medical needs such as blood or organs for transplant.
The gross national income (GNI), previously known as gross national product (GNP), is the total domestic and foreign output claimed by residents of a country, consisting of gross domestic product (GDP), plus factor incomes earned by foreign residents, minus income earned in the domestic economy by nonresidents.
The Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) is a registered UK charity that operates in the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Canada. It works with companies, private philanthropists, regular donors, fellow foundations, governments, charities and not-for-profit enterprises to enable them to give more. Its stated purpose is to “accelerate progress in society towards a fair and sustainable future for all.”
Planet Aid is a non-profit organization headquartered in Elkridge, Maryland. Its primary activity is the collection of clothing and other household items for resale and recycling. Founded in 1997 in Massachusetts, the organization has expanded down the East Coast of the United States and operates in 23 states, where it collects items through donation bins placed on sidewalks, parking lots, and other public areas.
The Happy Planet Index (HPI) is an index of human well-being and environmental impact that was introduced by the New Economics Foundation in 2006. Each country's HPI value is a function of its average subjective life satisfaction, life expectancy at birth, and ecological footprint per capita. The exact function is a little more complex, but conceptually it approximates multiplying life satisfaction and life expectancy and dividing that by the ecological footprint. The index is weighted to give progressively higher scores to nations with lower ecological footprints.
Book Aid International is a UK registered charity which provides books and supports libraries in Africa and around the world. Every year the charity sends books to public and community libraries as well as libraries in prisons, refugee camps, hospitals, schools and universities. The charity works in close partnership with libraries and also helps libraries develop their services through its library support projects and programmes. In 2019, an estimated 19 million people read the books which Book Aid International provided. Book Aid International should not be confused with the Book Aid Charitable Trust, a Christian UK charity also serving African and other countries, mainly with second-hand Christian books, which was founded in 1988 before the Ranfurly charity adopted a "Book Aid" name.
The World Giving Index (WGI) is an annual report published by the Charities Aid Foundation, using data gathered by Gallup, and ranks over 140 countries in the world according to how charitable they are. The aim of the World Giving Index is to provide insight into the scope and nature of giving around the world. The first edition was released in September 2010. The most recent edition was published in October 2022, with Indonesia, Kenya and the United States of America ranking as the top three. Australia, New Zealand, Myanmar, Sierra Leone, Canada, Zambia, and Ukraine making up the rest of the top ten.
Philanthropies, formerly LDS Philanthropies, is a department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is responsible for facilitating donations to humanitarian and educational initiatives. The department works under the direction of the church's Presiding Bishop. The most widely known educational projects are the operation of church-owned schools, such as Brigham Young University (BYU). Humanitarian funds are given to Latter-day Saint Charities which sponsors and organizes relief efforts. In 2019, the church reported over 3,000 community-based projects with an excess of 2,000 partners, in locations around the world. A 2020 statistic reported a total of $2.3 billion that had been donated over Philanthropies' existence.