Does Prosperity Lead to Charity? Re-visiting the 2014 World Giving Index
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 behaviour across the world. As the release of the 2015 WGI quickly approaches, it is an opportune time to revisit last edition’s most memorable findings. Highlighting three core areas related to charity: donating money, helping a stranger, and volunteering time, the 2014 WGI covered 135 countries in its data gathered by Gallup’s World Poll survey.
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. 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 2014 WGI was particularly representative of this — one might say — surprising trend: “with only five G20 countries represented in the World Giving Index Top 20 – indeed, eleven G20 countries are even ranked outside of the WGI Top 50”.
Take a look at the infographic below to learn more about other key aspects of the 2014 WGI index and stay tuned for the 2015 edition of the World Giving Index coming out this month!
