Maltese most generous nation in the world, but…

A recently published survey by the UK-based Charities Aid Foundation shows that the Maltese are the most generous in the world when it comes to donating money but fare poorly in giving their time as volunteers and helping strangers.

While 83% of the Maltese have donated money to charity in the previous month, only 21% volunteered time for charitable work and only 40% actually gave help to a stranger during the same period of time.

This meant that while the Maltese ranked highest among the 153 countries surveyed when it came to giving money, they ranked in 98th place when it came to helping strangers and in 37th place when it comes to giving their time for volunteering.

Overall Malta was ranked in 13th place in the world giving index-a placing which reflects its high score in giving money and its lower scores in helping strangers and volunteering.

The world wide survey showed that 30% of the world’s population had given money to charity, and 45% of the world’s population had helped a stranger.

Australia and New Zealand top the world giving index even if they rank lower than the Maltese when it comes to their propensity to donate money. They were closely followed by Canada and Ireland.

Significantly despite having the highest percentage of people who donate money the Maltese are surpassed in the overall ranking by poorer countries like Sri Lanka, Laos and Sierra Leone who rank high in volunteering and giving help to strangers.

Malta ranked in sixth place among 19 Western European nations in the overall index, ranking first when it came to giving money but only in 13^th place when it comes to volunteering time and 16^th place when it comes to helping strangers.

The Western European region showed  the greatest variation of all regions between countries in percentage of population giving money – from 8% (Greece) to 83% (Malta).  When all three factors are taken in account Irish emerge as the most charitable in Western Europe with 72% giving money, 35% volunteering time and 60% helping a stranger.

Sub Saharan Africa contains the top two countries in the world for helping a stranger – Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Northern Africa also ranks high (third out of the thirteen regions) for helping a stranger in need but fares less well in terms of volunteering time. Morocco appears in the top five countries in the world for giving money and Sudan is third in the world in terms of likelihood to help a stranger.

30% of the world’s population had given money to charity, and 45% of the world’s population had helped a stranger.

The CAF World Giving Index is an average of three measures; the proportion of the public in each of the 153 countries who had, in the previous month, given money to charity, given time to those in need and helped a stranger.

This report is primarily based upon data from Gallup’s WorldView World Poll which is an ongoing research project carried out in 153 countries that together represent around 95% of the world’s population.