Charitable giving declined a whopping 32 per cent in Canada during the decade from 2006 to 2016.
The amount Canadians donate as a share of their income has plummeted, a Fraser Institute study reveals. And Canadians are far less generous than Americans, the numbers show.
“Canadians continue to donate less and less every year, which means charities face greater challenges to help those in need this holiday season and throughout the year,” says the think-tank’s Jason Clemens.
The 2018 Generosity Index finds about one-in-five Canadian tax-filers (20.4 per cent) claimed charitable donations on their tax return in 2016, the latest year of available data. That’s a decline of 16.9 per cent since 2006.
South of the border, however, almost one-in-four (24.8 per cent) of Americans did so.
Similarly, the average percentage of income donated by Canadians dropped from 0.78 per cent in 2006 to 0.53 per cent in 2016. Meanwhile, Americans gave 1.46 per cent of their income in 2016 – nearly three times what Canadians claimed.
Of all 64 Canadian and U.S. states, provinces and territories, 12 of the least generous are Canadian.
Manitoba, which ranked 42nd overall, was the most generous Canadian jurisdiction. Utah was the most generous overall.
Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Ontario were tied for 50th, followed by British Columbia (54), Nova Scotia (55), New Brunswick (57), Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec (tied at 59), Yukon (61), Northwest Territories (63) and Nunavut, which ranked last at 64th.
