Poor and middle-income earners, churchgoers, and Republicans are the most generous Americans

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last updated 8 January 2015

A report based on IRS data and put together by the Chronicle of Philanthropy reveals that Americans with incomes under $100,000 annually give away a larger percentage of their income than those making $200,000 or more. While the average American gives about 3 percent of their income to charity each year, poor and middle-income earners increased their giving by nearly 5 percent between 2006 and 2012, while the wealthiest decreased their giving by roughly the same amount.

Beyond income, church attendance is the factor most strongly indicative of giving rates. The highly faithful Utah is the most generous state, giving an average of 6.6 percent of income each year to charity, while the more secular New England states like New Hampshire and Maine give 2 percent or less. Giving rates also correlate strongly with voting habits; the 17 most generous states all supported Mitt Romney in the 2012 election.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.