What Is The Most Generous State In America?

By DEB BELT (Patch Staff)

The holiday season is the season for giving, and the United States is a generous country. It ranked No. 2 in the Charities Aid Foundation’s World Giving Index.

But what is the most charitable state in America?

WalletHub recently conducted an analysis of 2015’s Most & Least Charitable States using eight different metrics.

And the most generous state in the country is... Utah, WalletHub says.

Utah was followed by Maryland, Idaho, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee and then Georgia. Rounding out the top 10 were Washington, Oklahoma and Minnesota.

And the 10 least charitable states? That would be Wisconsin, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New York, Kentucky, Arizona, California and Louisiana, with Rhode Island landing in last place, according to WalletHub.

The analysis looked at eight different metrics:

• Volunteer rate
• Percentage of income donated
• Percentage of taxpayers who said they donated money
• Percentage of taxpayers who said they donated time
• Growth in charitable giving
• Number of charities per capita
• Community service required for high school graduation
• Volunteer hours per capita

The study shows 95.4 percent of American households donate to charities, each contributing an annual average of $2,974. According to the National Philanthropic Trust, in 2014 alone, Americans gave more than $338 billion, 72 percent of which came directly from individuals.

Giving one’s time is a form of generosity too, the authors noted, with nearly 63 million people who volunteered with an organization at least once between September 2013 and September 2014, according to WalletHub’s Charity Calculator.

See the full state rankings here.