Missouri middle of the pack in charity

The Show Me State ranks No. 29 overall out of the 50 U.S. states when it comes to charity donations of volunteerism and financial gifts, according to financial website WalletHub.

Compared to the rest of the nation, Missouri is No. 32 in volunteer hours and No. 23 in money gifts.

Utah ranks as No. 1 most charitable overall, while Oregon leads the nation in terms of service hours.

New York was first in terms of total financial giving to charity.

Least charitable state overall is Arizona, which also ranked No. 50 in terms of charitable donations.

Worst in terms of service time to charity is California.

International rank

According to the latest available World Giving Index, after years in the world's top five nations, the U.S. fell to No. 19 of 114 surveyed countries with $485 billion in charitable donations with 67% coming directly from individuals. National Philanthropic Trust reports 78 million Americans volunteer for a total of 5.8 billion hours annually.

The world's most charitable nation on a per capita basis, according to WGI, is the southeast Asian country of Indonesia, with more than eight in 10 Indonesians giving money to charity.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, has a rate of volunteerism more than three times the global average.

Changes

Many of the countries that have consistently featured in WGI's top 10 have fallen far down the rankings in recent years.

U.S., United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland and the Netherlands have all seen significant decreases in their charitable Index scores.

After bouncing back from a decline in 2016, each country was recorded as being on a slight downward trend from 2018, but 2020 began a sharp move down the rankings.

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