George Young

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IRELAND THE MOST CHARITABLE EUROPEAN COUNTRY IN THE LAST DECADE

SAYS OUR LATEST RESEARCH

15 March 2019

Ahead of St. Patrick’s Day, an international charity has revealed that Ireland has been the most charitable country in Europe throughout the last 10 years.

Ireland is also the only European country to feature in the top 10 of the World Giving Index every year since 2010. That’s according to the Charities Aid Foundation, which compiles the annual list of the most charitable countries around the world.

In seven of the last nine years, Ireland has finished top in Europe, only losing out to the UK in 2015 and 2016. There are three key metrics in the World Giving Index that define a country’s generosity – donating money, volunteering, and helping a stranger – with the Irish consistently performing well across all three categories.

In 2018, 64% of Irish people helped a stranger in the month prior to interview; 64% also donated money to a good cause whilst 40% volunteered their time.

Last year’s World Giving Index was won by Indonesia, who finished top for the first time after scoring especially highly in both donating money and spending time volunteering.

St. Patrick's Day image

Susan Pinkney, Head of Research at the Charities Aid Foundation adds:

“The Irish have proven over a long period of time just how committed they are to the causes they care about. There’s clearly an exceptionally strong desire to help out the most vulnerable groups in society, and this is something that Irish people can rightly be proud of.”

IRELAND GIVING REPORT LAUNCHING LATER THIS YEAR

If you'd like to be informed when our inaugural Ireland Giving Report launches, please CLICK HERE to sign up to our Research newsletter. You'll be given advance notice of our reports and get sneak peeks into the latest research that CAF publishes.

Notes to editors

This report is primarily based upon data from Gallup’s World View World Poll, which is an ongoing research project carried out in 146 countries in 2017 that together represent around 95% of the world’s population. The survey asks questions on many different aspects of life today including giving behaviour. The countries surveyed and questions asked in each region varies from year to year and is determined by Gallup. More detail on Gallup’s methodology can be viewed online.

CAF exists to make giving go further, so that more lives and communities around the world can be transformed.

CAF is a charity and a champion for better giving, and for over 90 years has helped donors, companies, charities and social organisations make a bigger impact. Through CAF Bank, it offers simple and straightforward day-to-day banking, designed exclusively for charities.

We are CAF and we make giving count.

www.cafonline.org

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