Indonesia and Australia are the world’s most generous countries, according to a Gallup report published Dec. 12.

The report focused on more than charitable giving in order to assess a nation’s generosity more broadly.

Findings were based on a survey of adults in 146 nations, which asked respondents to answer the following questions:

“Have you done any of the following in the past month? How about:

• Donated money to a charity?
• Volunteered your time to an organization?
• Helped a stranger or someone you didn’t know who needed help?”

Overall, 2.2 billion respondents said they had helped a stranger, 1.4 billion respondents said they donated money, and 1 billion said they volunteered.

“On average, more than four in 10 people worldwide said they had helped a stranger or someone they didn’t know who was in need (43 percent), while far fewer said they had donated money (27 percent) or had volunteered their time (18 percent),” the report said. “These figures have been stable for the past decade.”

Indonesia and Australia were tied for first in the number of respondents demonstrating generosity in one of these ways, followed by the United States, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Kenya, Myanmar and Bahrain.

Citizens of Myanmar were the most likely to donate money, while those in Indonesia were most likely to volunteer, and people in Libya were most likely to help a stranger in need.

“Regardless of who you think are the most generous countries in the world, this report suggests one important thing: You don’t need to be rich to give back. Some countries where people have far less to give are among the most generous,” observed Jon Clifton, global managing partner at Gallup.

The full report is available here.

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