The World Giving Index (WGI) is an annual report published by the Charities Aid Foundation, using data gathered by Gallup, and ranks over 130 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 November 2016, with Myanmar, the United States and Australia ranking as the top three. New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Canada, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, Ireland and the United Arab Emirates complete the top ten.
According to BBC, the report is primarily based on data from the Gallup World Poll, which is an ongoing research project carried out in more than 140 countries that together represent around 95% of the world's adult population (around 5 billion people). In most countries surveyed, 1,000 questionnaires are completed by a representative sample of individuals living in the country.
Myanmar; A war-torn state and a country ruled by an oppressive military junta for decades are home to the world's most generous people, research suggests. A whopping 91 percent of people in Myanmar report that they have given money to charity in the past year, a commitment that may be linked to the practice of Theravada Buddhism. In the country, it is common for locals to give money, food, and other support to monks in order to help them live their ascetic lifestyles. With a population of 39 million, Myanmar has the highest per-person giving ratio of any country on this list.
As reported by The Telegraph, In United States some 73 percent of people polled report that they have helped a stranger within the past year. The high rates of volunteerism are possibly connected to supporting a political candidate through actions like phone-banking.
Australians are clearly fond of opening their wallets, coming in behind only Myanmar and Indonesia in amounts of per-person giving to charity. And while the index only considers donations made in the same country the giver lives in, the definition of "Australian" is changing as the country has vowed to take in some 12,000 Syrian refugees.
