Charities Aid Foundation has produced new research indicating that younger people today are much less likely to give to charity than those of the same age a generation ago – and that people in their sixties are now six times more generous than those under 30.

The study shows that the older generation is increasingly shouldering the burden of providing voluntary donations to the sector, and CAF’s chief executive John Low concludes that this “donation deficit” must be addressed urgently if charities are to survive in the not-so-distant future.

The report, written by Professor Sarah Smith from the University of Bristol, has been widely covered in the national media and Prof Smith was interviewed on the Today programme this morning.

John Low used the report as evidence to reiterate CAF’s longstanding demands for the government to boost generosity amongst the young by introducing a single, universal online gift aid declaration, overhauling payroll giving and introducing lifetime legacies.

He also said action must be taken now to engage children with charities at school, university and in work experience, and that the government and charity sector must work together to find ways to encourage young people onto trustee boards.

Some key findings from the report, which analysed data from 1978 to 2010, are:

• More than half of all donations to charity (52 per cent) now come from the over-60s, compared with 35 per cent 30 years ago
• 32 per cent of the over-60s had given to charity in the fortnight before they were surveyed, compared with 16 per cent of the under-30s.
• The over-60s are now more than six times more generous than the under-30s, whereas 30 years ago they were not even three times more generous
• The proportion of households giving to charity has declined from 32 per cent in 1978 to 27 per cent in 2010
• The share of total giving from the under-30s fell from 8 per cent in 1980 to 3 per cent in 2010, while the share coming from the over-75s grew from 9 per cent in 1980 to 21 per cent in 2010.

The charitable giving data used in the research was derived from the Living Costs and Food survey, the UK’s largest detailed survey of household expenditure  which has been carried out since 1957.  The survey samples nearly 6,500 households annually, on a rolling basis over the year.  The charitable giving does not include gifts to charity shops or the purchase of charity raffles or event tickets. It also does not include major gifts.