NoVA Cities, Counties Lead Virginia In Charitable Donations: Study

VIRGINIA — Northern Virginia jurisdictions once again dominated the rankings of a new study that looked at the most charitable residents in the state, with the City of Falls Church leading the way as the most generous jurisdiction, according to a new study by SmartAsset.

Along with the No. 1 ranking in Virginia, Falls Church ranked as the fifth most charitable city or county in the nation, up from the No. 6 spot in the 2021 study. Residents contributed 2.30 percent of their income to charities, and 27.65 of residents itemized charitable contributions on their tax returns.

The fourth annual "Most Generous Counties in the U.S." study by SmartAsset measured how much money people donate as a percentage of their net income and the proportion of people in a jurisdiction who make charitable donations.

Falls Church was followed in the 2022 Virginia ranking of most charitable jurisdictions by Loudoun County (8th nationally), Fairfax County (15th nationally), the City of Fairfax (23rd nationally) and Goochland County (26th nationally).

As the top jurisdiction in Virginia, Falls Church had an 78.39 index score, according to SmartAsset. Loudoun County had a 71.07 charitable index score, followed by Fairfax County with a 64.91 index score, Fairfax City with a 60.54 index score, and Goochland County with a 59.63 score.

The top four jurisdictions in the nation, ahead of Falls Church, were Teton County, Wyoming, with a 100 index score, followed by Morgan County, Utah as the second-most generous jurisdiction, Charles County, Maryland in third, and Prince George's County, Maryland in fourth.

The study measured how much money people donate as a percentage of their net income as well as the proportion of people in each county who make charitable donations.

Rounding out the top 10 most charitable jurisdictions in Virginia were the City of Alexandria (32nd nationally), Prince William County (34th nationally), Fauquier County (35th nationally), Arlington County (45th nationally) and Stafford County (47th nationally).

In other nearby jurisdictions, Spotsylvania ranked as the 22nd most charitable jurisdiction in Virginia and the 124th nationally, while Fredericksburg ranked as the 26th most charitable jurisdiction in Virginia and 146th nationally.

To find the most generous places, SmartAsset compared two factors in each jurisdiction: the amount of money people donate as a percentage of their net income, and the proportion of people who made charitable donations.

To determine the amount of money that people donate as a percentage of their income, SmartAsset calculated the net income for everyone in each city and county. It looked at tax return data and accounted for federal, state and local taxes paid.

SmartAsset then divided each county's total charitable donations by its total net income to see the amount of money residents in each county have donated relative to their income.

Next, SmartAsset measured the total number of individual tax returns that show charitable contributions and divided that by the total number of individual tax returns in each county. This produced the proportion of people in each county who make charitable donations.

The metrics in the 2022 study were based on IRS data from 2019, the most recently available data.

RELATED: NoVA Locales Top List Of Most Generous Jurisdictions In State