Indonesia Among the Most Charitable Countries in the World

KOMPAS.com – The Charities Aid Foundation [CAF] has named Indonesia as one of its top ten charitable countries in the world, according to its tenth annual World Giving Index [WGI] report.

Indonesia placed tenth on the report, which is “the world’s largest survey of charitable endeavors around the world,” Charities Aid Foundation said in its website.

The WGI report surveyed over 1.3 million respondents in 125 countries to compile their data. The document also “analyses data from the past ten years, uncovering trends in people’s charitable actions through times of economic crisis, economic recovery, and geopolitical unrest.”

The World Giving Index report particularly focused on three charitable measures:

• Helping a stranger
• Donated money to a charity
• Volunteered time to an organization

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Here are the list of the top ten most charitable countries, including Indonesia:

1. United States

The WGI put the United States as “the number one country on the WGI report for the last ten years, with a score of 58%. Of those surveyed, 72% reported helping a stranger, 61% reported donating to a charity, and 42% reported having volunteered their time to an organization.”

2. Myanmar

According to the WGI, “Myanmar is the second-most charitable country in the world, with an overall score of 58%. Despite being a lower-middle-income country, Myanmar has the highest percentage of people donating to charities at 81%.”

49 percent of respondents from the country admitted to helping strangers, 81 percent donate their money to charity, while 43 percent volunteered their time.

The report attributed the altruistic nature of the country’s respondents to the adherence of many of its people to Theravada Buddhism, “for whom small, frequent acts of giving are the norm.”

DOK. Humas Dompet Dhuafa The Dompet Dhuafa charity organization's Disaster Management Center (DMC) prepares 20 tons of rice, 16 tons of cooking oil as well as milk, flour and other foodstuffs at its warehouse in Ciputat, South Tangerang, on Monday (27/4/2020)

3. New Zealand

New Zealand placed third in the WGI index with an overall score of 57 percent. The country is also in the top ten for all three measures, placing “ninth for donations [65 percent], ninth for helping strangers [64 percent], and sixth for time volunteered [41 percent].”