India has more people who help strangers, donate money or volunteer their time for a good cause than any other country on Earth, according to the world’s leading report on global generosity.
The CAF World Giving Index, published today, shows that more than 334 million Indians helped a stranger, more than 183 million gave money and more than 156 million volunteered time.
However, while India’s large population means it has a huge number of people performing acts of generosity, the proportion of people who give is lower than in many other countries.
The annual CAF World Giving Index is a unique study of global charitable behaviour based on surveys in 145 countries carried out by Gallup. It looks at three measures of giving: the percentage of people who have given to charity, volunteered their time and helped a stranger in the last month.

This year’s report found that the proportion of people in India donating to charity in 2014 had fallen to 20% - down eight percentage points on 2013.
There were also fewer Indians who had volunteered or helped a stranger in the last month, with 17% of people having volunteered (a drop of four percentage points) and 37% of people having helped a stranger (a drop of two percentage points).
India ranked as the 106th most generous country overall – just behind Brazil – and the eighth out of eight countries included from Southern Asia.
Counties in southern Asia ranked by generosity:
Country Region Ranking World Giving Index Ranking World Giving Index (%) Helping a stranger Donating Money Volunteering Time
Sri Lanka 1 8 56% 60% 59% 48%
Bhutan 2 17 49% 53% 55% 38%
Iran 3 32 43% 50% 54% 24%
Nepal 4 76 32% 37% 30% 27%
Afghanistan 5 84 30% 51% 28% 9%
Pakistan 6 94 28% 36% 36% 12%
Bangladesh 7 95 27% 62% 11% 10%
India 8 106 25% 37% 20% 17%
Average 36% 48% 37% 23%

Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) is an international non-profit organisation which promotes effective giving and philanthropy worldwide. Meenakshi Batra, Chief Executive of CAF India, said:

“The size of India’s population means that there are more people performing acts of generosity here than any other country in the world.However, the relatively low proportion of people who are giving their time or money shows there is still a lot more we must do. Wealth in India is predicted to grow significantly in the coming years. If this is to benefit the entire Indian population through better standards of living rather than simply widening the gap between rich and poor, we must do more to engage people in addressing development gaps.To do this we will need to build trust in non-government organisations and bring legislation up-to-date to nurture a culture of structured and effective giving. A part of this requires giving more and giving strategically for sustainable long term impact.Civil society organisations can play a significant role in supporting donors to fulfil this objective. To do this we will need to build trust in non-government organisations and create an enabling environment that can nurture a culture of giving.”

For more information:
Sangeeta S. Thakral - Head Communication & Marketing
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 9999093684