Nearly 1.4 Billion People Worldwide Gave to Charity in 2017

In 2017, an estimated 1.4 billion people around the world gave money to a charity, a billion volunteered their time to a nonprofit, and 2.2 billion helped a stranger in need, a report from Gallup finds. Based on interviews with more than a hundred and fifty-three thousand people age 15 and older in a hundred and forty-six countries, the 2018 World's Most Generous Countries Report (13 pages, PDF) found that, on average, 27 percent of respondents said they had given to charity, 18 percent had volunteered, and 43 percent had helped a stranger in the past month. Based on a composite score of the three metrics in each country, the Civic Engagement Index ranked Indonesia where 78 percent of respondents gave to charity and 53 percent volunteered — as the most generous country overall, followed by Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and Ireland. While Americans were the ninth most likely to volunteer (39 percent) and tenth most likely to help a stranger (72 percent), they did not rank in the top ten for giving to charity.