‘Tis the season of giving and while the World Giving Index has shown the United States is the most generous country in the world (over the last decade), donating more than $449 billion to charity, Ohio has its own philanthropic claim.
According to a report by WalletHub, Ohio is one of the top 10 most charitable states — No. 5, to be exact.
“While the COVID-19 pandemic may have disrupted some volunteer opportunities in 2020, it hasn’t stopped people from giving. In fact, donor grantmaking was up 16% in the first four months of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019,” says the report.
To determine America’s most generous people, WalletHub evaluated 19 different sets of data across all 50 states, from charities per capita to volunteer rate and share of sheltered homeless to the amount of money people would lend their neighbors in need.
In addition to being No. 5, Ohio also ranked in the top five states for the percent of the population collecting and distributing food, and in the top 25 for charities per capita, volunteer rate and volunteer hours per capita.
In a separate study by a separate financial site — SmartAsset — Hamilton County also ranked among the most generous in Ohio. Hamilton came in No. 5, with residents donating (on average) 1.54% of incomes as contributions.
The top 10 most charitable states are:
- Utah
- Minnesota
- Maryland
- Oregon
- Ohio
- Pennsylvania
- Virginia
- North Dakota
- Maine
- Colorado
The least giving? Arizona.
The full study and methodology is available at wallethub.com.
This article appears in The Gift Guide.