Generosity in Canada and the United States: The 2015 Generosity Index

— Published on December 17, 2015

Manitoba had the highest percentage of tax filers that donated to charity among the provinces (25.3%) during the 2013 tax year while New Brunswick had the lowest (20.0%). Manitoba also donated the highest percentage of its aggregate income to charity among the provinces (0.81%) while Quebec donated the lowest (0.28%). Nationwide, a lower percentage of tax filers donated to charity in Canada (21.8%) than in the United States (25.0%). Similarly, Canadians (at 0.56%) gave a lower percentage of their aggregate income to charity than did Americans (at 1.39%).
The general trend in recent years is that a declining percentage of Canadian tax filers are donating to charity and they are donating less as a percentage of income. The percentage of tax filers donating to charity varies significantly among US states and Canadian provinces and territories. On this indicator, Manitoba is the only Canadian jurisdiction that ranks among the top 20 (ranked 19th out of 64).
The percentage of aggregate income donated was generally less in the Canadian provinces and territories than in the US states. There was only one US states (West Virginia) where the percentage of aggregate income donated was less than the percentage donated in Manitoba (0.81%), Canada’s highest ranked province.
US jurisdictions top the overall Generosity Index rankings. Utah places first (scoring 8.8 out of 10.0), followed by Maryland (7.6) and District of Columbia (6.9). Manitoba is the highest-scoring Canadian province (3.8) but ranks only 38th overall out of 64 North American jurisdictions.