According to the World Giving Index (WGI), published by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), based on trends seen in 2014, the most generous country in the world is Myanmar.
The WGI measures three different kinds of giving undertaken by people in the past month: 1. Donation of money, 2. Volunteering and 3. Helping a stranger. For this year 145 countries were surveyed.
Ninety two percent of Myanmar's population donated money and 50% volunteered their time. It is possible that the country's generosity may reflect its culture of Theravada Buddhism.
The other countries forming the list of top 10 in the WGI are United States, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Sri Lanka, Ireland and Malaysia.
One very interesting finding is that only 5 G20 countries are present in this year's Top 20, indicating that economic prosperity does not automatically lead to increase in generosity.
In this survey, India ranks 106th, last among the South Asian countries. However due to the large population, India has the greatest number of givers. In 2014, more than 183 million gave money and more than 334 million helped a stranger.
Correlation between Generosity and Happiness
I thought it would be a good idea to compare the rankings of the most generous countries with their happiness rankings to determine if there is an apparent correlation between generosity and happiness.
According to the World Happiness Report 2015, the following is the happiness ranking of the top 10 generous nations: Myanmar (129), US (15), New Zealand (9), Canada (5), Australia (10), UK (21), Netherlands (7), Sri Lanka (132), Ireland (18) and Malaysia (61). India, even with a significant number of helpful people, still ranks 117 in the happiness report.
Although a number of factors determine the happiness levels of a nation, it seems obvious that people in happy nations give more, while it is debatable if generous nations are happier.
The WGI measures three different kinds of giving undertaken by people in the past month: 1. Donation of money, 2. Volunteering and 3. Helping a stranger. For this year 145 countries were surveyed.
Ninety two percent of Myanmar's population donated money and 50% volunteered their time. It is possible that the country's generosity may reflect its culture of Theravada Buddhism.
The other countries forming the list of top 10 in the WGI are United States, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Sri Lanka, Ireland and Malaysia.
One very interesting finding is that only 5 G20 countries are present in this year's Top 20, indicating that economic prosperity does not automatically lead to increase in generosity.
In this survey, India ranks 106th, last among the South Asian countries. However due to the large population, India has the greatest number of givers. In 2014, more than 183 million gave money and more than 334 million helped a stranger.
Correlation between Generosity and Happiness
I thought it would be a good idea to compare the rankings of the most generous countries with their happiness rankings to determine if there is an apparent correlation between generosity and happiness.
According to the World Happiness Report 2015, the following is the happiness ranking of the top 10 generous nations: Myanmar (129), US (15), New Zealand (9), Canada (5), Australia (10), UK (21), Netherlands (7), Sri Lanka (132), Ireland (18) and Malaysia (61). India, even with a significant number of helpful people, still ranks 117 in the happiness report.
Although a number of factors determine the happiness levels of a nation, it seems obvious that people in happy nations give more, while it is debatable if generous nations are happier.
1 comment:
I don't believe in all these happiness reports. Or their connection to generosity.
BTW, in India, we work and we also volunteer at work. By doing more work than what we are supposed to do, i.e. :P
Destination Infinity
Post a Comment