Australia Drops in World Giving Index

Australia has fallen out of the top five most generous countries for the first time – falling three places to sixth, behind Myanmar, Indonesia, Kenya, New Zealand and the USA, according to the latest global giving index.

However giving in Africa rose, bucking a global fall, according to the Charities Aid Foundation  World Giving Index.

The CAF World Giving Index recorded the number of people who helped a stranger in the past month, volunteered their time, or gave money to a good cause. For the 2017 report, 146,000 people were interviewed in 139 countries.

This year, the global index was down slightly on 2016 –  donating money and helping a stranger were down 1.8 per cent whilst volunteering was down 0.8 per cent.

“Whilst global generosity appears to have contracted, the decline is most noticeable amongst developed nations which failed to maintain the increases made in 2016,” CAF said.

“The USA and the UK both fell three places, and despite remaining in fourth, New Zealand saw a two percentage point decrease in its World Giving Index score.”

But while many developed nations fell, CAF said that Africa showed a strong performance, similar to the one it achieved in 2016, experiencing growth across all three giving behaviours (against its five year average).

“It was the only continent to achieve this and a feat it has achieved for the second consecutive year,” CAF said.

CAF said Australia had seen a 10 per cent decrease in the proportion of people donating money. New Zealand remained in fourth place but its score had decreased by two percentage points.

In Australia, CEO at Good2Give Lisa Grinham said: “Having improved its score year on year between 2012 and 2015, Australia has this year fallen out of the top five for the first time. However, Australia still remains at the forefront of charitable giving.

“I think what people should take away from this year’s report is that we cannot afford to be complacent when it comes to supporting our culture of giving in Australia.”

The Charities Aid Foundation has been producing the CAF World Giving Index since 2010.

In an unusual twist the index found that the high proportion of people donating money in strife-torn Myanmar ensured its place at the top of the 2017 rankings.

“This is likely due to the prevalence of small, frequent acts of giving in support of those living a monastic lifestyle,” CAF said.

However, Myanmar’s score is five percentage points lower than last year, when CAF reported its highest ever score.

“We hypothesised that this high score may have been driven by a sense of optimism ahead of the country’s first openly contested election for 25 years,” CAF said.

In late 2015, the National League for Democracy swept to power with Aung San Suu Kyi sworn in as the country’s de facto leader after two decades of house arrest.

However, conflict escalated in Myanmar during 2016 and more recently with allegations of serious human rights abuses and claims of genocide against the country’s displaced Rohingya Muslims.