The Fraser Institute’s “Generosity in Canada and the United States: The 2008 Generosity Index,” shows that Utah is the number one ranked jurisdiction for generosity, with 36.0 per cent of tax filers giving a charitable donation of 3.84 per cent of their total income.
Maryland is the second most generous with 43.5 per cent of tax filers giving to charity, amounting to 2.11 per cent of total income. The District of Columbia comes third with 36.1 per cent of tax filers making donations worth 2.15 per cent of total income.
Each state and province received a score based on a combination of what percentage of tax filers gave and what the percentage of their income those filers donated.
Canadians, it turns out, are not nearly as magnanimous as Americans, says Neil Veldhuis, one of the authors of the report.
“I think many Canadians would think that we’re more generous than Americans but when you look at the data that’s just not the case. The U.S. on average has 30 per cent of tax filers donating to charities while in Canada it’s much lower at 25 per cent.”
In Canada, the Prairie province of Manitoba gives the most, with 28.1 per cent of tax filers donating to charities, amounting to1.14 per cent of total income earned in the province.
Ontario, which has the largest population in Canada, is the second most generous with 26.7 per cent of tax filers donating, amounting to 0.92 per cent of total income earned. Saskatchewan comes third with 26.0 per cent, while Newfoundland and Labrador along with Quebec are the least generous, the report found.
At 1.14 per cent, the aggregate income donated in Manitoba was less than half that donated in Utah. Overall, the only states giving less than Manitoba are South Dakota, Alaska, North Dakota and West Virginia.
While the people of West Virginia give less than those living in Ontario and Saskatchewan, all other Canadian provinces and territories trail every U.S. state, giving 0.86 per cent of their total income or less to charity.
Veldhuis says that if Canadians donated to charities to the same extent as Americans, Canadian charities would have received an extra $9.8 billion in revenue.
The Fraser Institute has been tracking charitable donations annually since 1996, and since then both Utah and Manitoba have consistently been the most generous in their respective countries.
“We don’t see a lot of movement between jurisdictions,” says Veldhuis. “Certainly there’s some, but those who were in the top rankings and those who were in the bottom don’t change much over the years.”
