Europeans half as generous as African & Asian citizens, but give more internationally

European citizens give away an average of 0.64% of their income to good causes, the lowest figure of any continent, according to the latest World Giving Report from the UK’s Charities Aid Foundation.

This figure is dwarfed by the 1.54% and 1.28% averages in Africa and Asia respectively, and lower than North America’s 0.94%, Oceania’s 0.75% and South America’s 0.73%.

However, Europeans are the most likely to support international charities doing work outside of their own country, with 15% of donors giving to such organizations, nearly double the 8% that do so in South America.

The individual countries where people are most likely to donate to crises outside of their country are the UAE (32%) – where nearly nine in 10 of the population are foreign nationals – Saudi Arabia (29%), and Norway (28%).

Country rankings

CAF’s surveys of more than 50,000 people across 101 countries found that Nigeria is the single most generous country, with an average of 2.83% of income donated.

Euro-Asian nation Turkey is 11th with a 1.77% average, while the highest-ranked EU member or candidate member is Bosnia & Herzegovina, in joint 31st with 1.17%.

Japan is the least generous country in the report under this metric, with a 0.16% donation average, while the second-bottom ranked state is Germany (0.39%). In total, 16 of the bottom 20 are also European, including France (equal 97th, with 0.45%).

Neil Heslop, CEO of CAF, says of these findings:

“It is notable that giving does not necessarily correlate with wealth or even security, but rather on the perception of necessity – and very often we perceive those closest to us to be most in need. During these challenging times, there is much we can learn about the power of connection, and the nature of compassion for our fellow citizens, whether they be across the street or around the world.”

Putting children first

Globally, children and young people is the single most popular cause for donations, with 29% of donors giving to such organizations. It is the only cause appearing in the top five cause areas for every continent.

Poverty relief (also 29%), religious causes (28%) and humanitarian aid (26%) are the next most popular, with the least popular are sports/recreation (6%); arts, culture, heritage or science (5%); and other (4%).

The country most likely to give to environmental causes is Vietnam (supported by 37% of donors), followed by China (27%) and India (24%).