With a third of all annual giving taking place in December and the U.S. ranking No. 5 overall in the 2017 World Giving Index, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2017’s Most Charitable States, along with its Charity Calculator to help donors decide whether to give time or money for maximum philanthropic impact.
To determine where the most generous Americans are inspiring others to be more selfless, WalletHub compared the 50 states based on 14 key indicators of charitable behavior. The data set ranges from volunteer rate to share of income donated to share of sheltered homeless. Sadly, despite being the third most populous state, Florida has the lowest volunteer participation of any state in the nation.
| Most Charitable States | |||||
| 1 | Utah | 11 | Connecticut | ||
| 2 | Maryland | 12 | Kansas | ||
| 3 | Minnesota | 13 | New Hampshire | ||
| 4 | Wyoming | 14 | Oregon | ||
| 5 | Wisconsin | 15 | New York | ||
| 6 | Washington | 16 | Ohio | ||
| 7 | Virginia | 17 | North Dakota | ||
| 8 | South Dakota | 18 | Missouri | ||
| 9 | Georgia | 19 | South Carolina | ||
| 10 | Oklahoma | 20 | Nebraska | ||
Key Stats
- Vermont has the most charities per capita, 27.14, which is 4.6 times more than in Nevada, the state with the fewest at 5.95.
- Utah has the highest volunteer rate, 39.29 percent, which is 2.1 times higher than in Florida, the state with the lowest at 18.31 percent.
- Utah has the most volunteer hours per capita, 75.6, which is 3.7 times more than in Kentucky, the state with the fewest at 20.7.
- Utah has the highest share of aggregate income donated to charity, 3.17 percent, which is 4.2 times higher than in West Virginia, the state with the lowest at 0.75 percent.
- Utah has the highest share of the population who claim to have donated time, 56 percent, which is 1.9 times higher than in Kentucky, the state with the lowest at 30 percent.
- Maryland has the highest share of taxpayers who donated money to charity, 38.48 percent, which is 3.1 times higher than in West Virginia, the state with the lowest at 12.26 percent.
To view the full report and your state’s rank, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/
