Interesting survey - thanks for posting eh. I see that globalpost was quite selective with it's extracts (as you'd expect with a US based publication - pulling out the US aspects) and the CAFonline headline was about UK. It is also a survey of people, and does not measure the aid/charity given by countries themselves - rather what % citizens surveyed within countries said they had given money, time or helped a stranger.
Congratulations to the citizens of the USA and the other countries who came out on top. In my experience, many individual Americans are indeed quite generous and well meaning. Some look down on the poor and have right wing views about how the poor are to blame for their condition, but many are more charitable.
Interestingly the survey had China at 141 and India at 91. Pakistan went from 142 to 34!
What's interesting is the range of countries making the top of each category - 'Western nations' aren't 'the most giving' on all measures.
The highest-ranked country for "helping a stranger"; is Liberia, with 81% of the population giving in this way each month. The USA is second, with 73%, and Ghana and Sierra Leone are jointly third, with 72%.
Turkmenistan is the country with the highest percentage of the population "volunteering time", with 61% doing so per month. Second is Liberia, 48%, and third is Sri Lanka, 46%.
By far the largest increase in the percentage of population "giving money"; is in Asia, with an increase of 9% in South Eastern Asia and an increase of 10% in Southern Asia.
The report shows that the worldwide increase in inclination to "help a stranger" is in part due to a surge in the prevalence of this behaviour in Asia - with the four Asian regions seeing increases in the percentages of their populations "helping a stranger" ranging from between 4-16%.
The Gallup opinion polls, used as the basis for the World Giving Index, asked over 150,000 people - representing 95% of the global population - whether they had given money to charity, volunteered time or helped a stranger in the last month. Using information from these interviews, the World Giving Index combines the levels of each charitable behaviour to produce a ranking of the most charitable nations in the world.
Cheers,
Shafique