Generosity measured

In which countries of the world do people give the most? An interesting question. But how do you go about measuring giving?  Well, I suppose you can measure how much money the average citizen gives to charity.

With that in mind I looked at the following map which I was sent today. But it raised some questions in my mind.

 



How do Sudan, Thailand and Azerbijan all score higher than France?   I was forced to read the report to find out. The clue comes in how you measure 'giving'.  Of course I, being a Westerner, simply equated giving with pounds or dollars but the authors of this report have a much better definition. The ratings given to each of the 135 countries studied was based to the responses people gave to three simple questions:

Have you done any of the following in the past month?

• Donated money to a charity?
• Volunteered your time to an organisation?
• Helped a stranger, or someone you didn’t know who needed help?

Now that's a better definition of generosity.

To read the full report click here.