UK falls out of top 20 most generous countries in the world

The UK is no longer one of the most generous countries in the world, according to the Charities Aid Foundation’s World Giving Index 2024. It now places 22nd in the global index, its joint lowest ranking, having fallen to the same level it was in 2020 when charitable activity was severely limited by the Covid 19 pandemic.

The CAF World Giving Index is one of the biggest surveys on giving ever produced, with this year’s research covering 142 countries and interviewing millions of people around the world since 2009. This year, the most generous countries in the world are Indonesia, Kenya and Singapore.

The UK’s overall global rank and scores have been declining over the past decade. In 2014, it was the sixth most generous country in the world, achieving an overall score of 57%, but this has fallen to 49% this year.

Furthermore, the UK’s score has fallen significantly in each of the three individual measures people are asked about. The CAF World Giving Index asks whether people have helped a stranger, given money or volunteered for a good cause over the past month. In 2014, 75% in the UK donated money compared to 67% in this year’s report. Fewer people now help strangers (declining from 63% to 55%) and volunteer their time (32% falling to 26%).  

The UK is also behind other high-income countries that saw a decline in their index score during the pandemic but returned to a high ranking in 2022. This year’s top 10 includes the United States in sixth place and Australia in eighth, while Canada is 11th, Ireland is 15th and New Zealand is in 17th place.

In separate polling for the Charities Aid Foundation, only a quarter (25%) of the UK public thinks the country has become more generous over the last 100 years, while two in five (41%) think the UK's generosity has declined or was never especially generous to begin with.

Neil Heslop, Chief Executive of the Charities Aid Foundation, comments:

“The long-term decline in the UK’s overall generosity shows we seem to have increasingly fallen out of the habit of giving - both our time and our money. Building a giving society is crucial to connect us to one another in communities and strengthen our social fabric.
“While we can still be a generous country even when times are so tough, more needs to be done to prevent this downward trend from continuing. We can learn from other countries that have taken proactive steps to harness charitable giving such as Singapore and Australia. That is why we are calling on the Government to lead a national strategy for philanthropy and charitable giving that renews our British culture of giving.”

The Charities Aid Foundation, which marks its centenary this year, connects donors to charitable causes around the world. CAF distributes over £1 billion to charities every year.