The UK is still the most generous country in Europe, but has slipped from sixth to eighth in the world, according to the latest CAF World Giving Index.

This is the seventh year that the Charities Aid Foundation has produced the report. It measures how many people have donated, volunteered and helped a stranger in the past month to arrive at an overall giving score. It surveyed 148,000 people in 140 countries as part of the Gallup World Poll.

Myanmar retained the top spot, with an overall giving score of 70 per cent - CAF puts this down to the prevalence of Buddhism in the country. The United States was second and Australia was third.

The UK had an overall score of 54 per cent. Some 69 per cent of people surveyed said they had donated money, 61 per cent of respondents said that they helped a stranger, and 33 per cent volunteered.

The donations figure is down on last year, however. Last year 74 per cent of people in the UK said they had given to charity in the past month.

The UK was seventh this year in terms of donating to charity, and second in Europe, with Iceland just ahead of it. 

Ireland was ninth, also with an overall score of 54 per cent. 

Global trends 

Over the past five years giving on all three measures has increased across the world.

For the first time since CAF began tracking trends, more than half the world’s population reported that they had helped a stranger in the month prior to being surveyed.

Just over 30 per cent of the world’s population donated money and 21.6 per cent volunteered. 

Africa has seen the biggest increase in generosity over the past year.