NZ third most generous country, global index finds

New Zealand is the third most generous country in the world according to an annual world giving index. Photo / Paul Taylor

New Zealand is the third most generous country in the world according to an annual world giving index.

Indonesia was found to be the most generous, followed by our friends across the ditch, Australia.

The measure of global generosity, used by the Charities Aid Foundation, found New Zealand had moved up one place in the annual index since last year.

The World Giving Index, in his ninth year, is based upon data from Gallup's World View World Poll, which is an ongoing research project carried out in more than 146 countries in 2017.

The survey asked questions on many different aspects of life today including "giving behaviour".

The countries surveyed and questions asked in each region varied from year to year.

New Zealand is one of only two countries to have featured in the top five every year since the survey began nine years ago – the other being the United States.

The United States moved up one place to fourth in the rankings.

Myanmar, the most generous country on earth for 2017, fell to ninth place in the rankings, owed largely to a fall in the number of people volunteering.

150,000 people in 146 countries were surveyed as part of the Gallup World Poll.

World Giving Index Top 10 Generous Countries

1. Indonesia
2. Australia
3. New Zealand
4. United States of America
5. Ireland
6. United Kingdom
7. Singapore
8. Kenya
9. Myanmar
10. Bahrain

Key findings

• Haiti features in the top 20 for the first time.

• Singapore in the top 20 for the first time this year, having ranked as low as 64 five years ago.

• Libya was the most generous in terms of helping a stranger, where 83 per cent of people reported having done so.