A new report by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) has ranked the UK at 64 for its generosity out of 101 countries and territories.
CAF’s World Giving Report 2025, published today, says that 64% of people globally gave money to good causes last year, with individuals in low-income countries being twice as generous as those in high-income countries.
Its report is based on an assessment of the amount of money donated to charities, people in need and for religious reasons from a sample of over 50,000 people and is an enhanced version of its long-running World Giving Index.
Africa ranked most generous continent
The report says that people worldwide were most likely to donate by giving money directly to people in need (38%) or charities (36%), while a quarter gave to a religious organisation or for religious reasons.
The average person donated 1.04% of their monthly income figure after tax through any combination of the three giving routes in 2024.
Africa was ranked as the world’s most generous continent in terms of the number of people who donated and how much they gave, with African countries making up six of the top 10 and 17 of the top 30 most generous countries.
On average, people in Africa donated 1.54% of their income to good causes, compared with 0.64% for those in Europe.
Nigeria topped CAF’s survey as the most generous country, with people there giving on average 2.83% of their income to charities, religious organisations and directly to individuals in need. This was followed by Egypt (2.45%) and Ghana and China (2.19%).
Conversely, the five least generous countries in the world were France and Portugal (0.45%), Finland (0.40%), Germany (0.39%) and Japan (0.16%).
People in high-income countries donated on average just 0.70% of their annual incomes, which is around half the proportion given in low-income countries, where people donated 1.45%.
Most supported cause
The report says that while donors worldwide supported a wide range of causes last year, the only cause in the top five for each continent was children and young people, with three in 10 people supporting it.
Donors in Asia and Africa were the most likely to support environmental causes, with 16% of people in the former continent supporting these causes compared with 13% in the latter.
In all other continents, an average of 10% or less of people used their donations to support the environment.
One in four donors worldwide supported humanitarian aid and disaster relief, with Bosnia and Herzegovina being the only country where the majority of the population (59%) supported it.
The least popular causes globally were the arts, culture, heritage or science and other (5%) and armed forces (4%).
Support was most likely to be given to local or regional charities, with 71% of respondents choosing them compared with 46% who supported national charities and 23% who chose international charities working in their countries.
The report also says that globally, 26% people volunteered last year, while the average amount of time spent volunteering per person was nine hours.
People in Qatar volunteered the most, with 27.5 hours on average per person, followed by Rwanda (26.6 hours) and Côte d’Ivoire (23.3 hours).
‘Wide disparity’
Neil Heslop, chief executive of CAF, said: “Around the world, social purpose organisations are facing severe financial headwinds.
“Traditional funding models need to change as patterns of behaviour evolve and governments cut back on their aid and development spending with philanthropy seeking to respond.
“Individual giving remains the cornerstone of generosity. Yet, there’s a wide disparity, with the most dynamic cultures of giving often in countries where the populations are also much in need.
“It’s notable that giving doesn’t 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’s 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.”
Related articles
