Around the world, a record 4.3 billion people helped someone they didn’t know, volunteered their time, or donated money to a good cause in the previous month, according to the World Giving Index 2024. Indonesia, Kenya, and Singapore lead the ranking.
The world’s most generous country is Indonesia for the seventh year in a row, where 90% of the population donated money to social organizations and 65% volunteered their time. Kenya is the second most generous country, rising from third last year. Singapore has risen 19 positions into third place, increasing its overall index score from 49% to 61%. Singapore’s positive results are a result of recent government initiatives to strengthen philanthropy and volunteering.
To Neil Heslop OBE, Chief Executive at Charities Aid Foundation, “The generosity of people around the world is evident in CAF’s latest World Giving Index, with the global index score at its joint highest level, only previously matched during the pandemic. The research demonstrates how people from all continents and cultures remain ready to help those in need, during a year of continued economic and humanitarian challenges.”
Brazil climbed three positions compared to the previous year and now ranks 86th. The three indicators remained stable, with a slight improvement of 3 percentage points in money donated to civil society organizations. Helping a stranger is still the predominant behavior, practiced by 65% of respondents. The survey carried out between September and November of 2023, does not capture the donations made due to the climate tragedy in Rio Grande do Sul. Although Brazil has ranked higher in previous years, this was the second-best score – 38%. The highest ranking happened in 2021, still under the effects of the pandemic, when generosity was high and forms of participation, whether through donations or volunteering, were more evident.
According to Paula Fabiani, CEO of IDIS, “The stability of giving culture in Brazil is not surprising, but it’s interesting to see how public policies designed to promote philanthropy, such as tax incentives, individual donations matching, and benefits to the practice of corporate volunteering, have had positive effects in Singapore and can be an example for us.”
The World Giving Index is one of the largest surveys on giving ever produced, with millions of people interviewed worldwide since 2009. This edition includes data from 142 countries, in which people were asked if they had engaged in three types of actions in the past month: helping a stranger, donating money to a charity, or volunteering. This is an initiative of the British organization Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), represented in Brazil by IDIS – Institute for the Development of Social Investment.
The CAF World Giving Index 2024 also reveals:
-> The top 10 ranking countries only include two of the world’s biggest economies (Indonesia and the United States of America), while one of the world’s poorest countries – The Gambia – ranks 4th place.
-> Morocco saw the world’s largest year-on-year increase in donating money, with interviews conducted after the devastating earthquakes that hit the central part of the country in September 2023. Only two percent of people donated money to charities in 2022, but this rose to 18% last year, and volunteering rates doubled from 8% to 16%.
-> Greece is this year’s biggest riser, having consistently improved its ranking since 2013. It has a particularly high score for helping a stranger – significantly above the European average and particularly high among young people.
-> In the last decade, Ukraine, Indonesia, Chad, Russia, and China are the countries that most improved, each having recorded an increase of 25 points or more.
The top 10 giving countries of CAF World Giving Index 2024:
- Indonesia
- Kenya
- Singapore
- The Gambia
- Nigeria
- United States of America
- Ukraine
- Australia
- United Arab Emirates
- Malta
Download the report
World Giving Index 2024
