NoVA Locales Top List Of Most Generous Jurisdictions In State

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

The third 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 ranked No. 1 in Virginia and sixth in the nation in charitable giving. Residents contributed 1.65 percent of their income to charities, and 29.40 of residents itemized charitable contributions on their tax returns.

As the top jurisdiction in Virginia, Falls Church had an 87.51 index score, according to SmartAsset. Loudoun County ranked second in the state, with an 84.38 charitable index score, followed by Fairfax County in third with a 76.50 index score, Goochland County in fourth with 72.69 index score and Fairfax City in fifth with a 71.24 index score.

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

To determine the amount of money people donated as a percentage of their income, SmartAsset, a personal finance company based in New York City, first calculated the net income of all people in each county. To do this, it looked at tax return data and accounted for federal, state and local taxes paid. It also accounted for deductible entries, including mortgage interest, mortgage points and mortgage insurance payments.

SmartAsset then divided each county's total charitable donations by its total net income to see how much money county residents are donating 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. It then indexed and equally weighted the two factors to produce its Most Generous Places Index.

The metrics in the study are based on IRS data from 2018.

Among the Virginia jurisdictions, Fauquier County, Alexandria, Prince William County, Stafford County and Arlington County also ranked in the top 10, according to the study.