Americans v. Canadians: Who Is More Generous?

Sure our neighbors to the north get credit for universal health care and delicious maple syrup, but it turns out the United States has a leg up on Canada: Americans give more to charity than Canadians.

The Fraser Institute, which released its annual report, Generosity in Canada and the United States, on Dec. 20, 2010, confirmed that the generosity gap between the U.S. and Canada is "substantial."

As The New York Times Freakonomics blog reported:

"[E]ven the most generous Canadians don't match the level of charitable giving found in the United States. Monetary generosity in the U.S. surpassed that of Canada, with 27.3 percent of American tax filers donating to charity, compared to 23.6 percent of Canadian tax filers. In comparing Canadian provinces to American states on the overall index, Canadian provinces and territories occupy six of the bottom 10 rankings, with Manitoba, Canada's highest-ranked jurisdiction, ranking 35th overall."

Read more about the two countries' giving habits at The New York Times.

Comments

[arcarolina]

10:25 AM on 01/07/2011

I so hate this concept of charity. How about instead we agree that as citizens we also have duties toward our society so that charity is not so needed? I find it one of the worst form of looking down onto someone else. Look how good I am, I give in charity.

[Thee Purpleroot]

08:30 AM on 01/07/2011

In order to put this information out, some americans must be feeling guilty.

[jrmcmillan]

08:05 AM on 01/07/2011

Also, the Canadian social safety net is paid for by a higher tax rate. Canadians all contribute to universal healthcare, unemployment insurance and education initiatives for those of limited means. To contend individual Canadians are less generous because their taxes are aggregated into institutional systems to not only provide for the needy, but to actually reduce the need, is deceptive and disingenuous.

If Americans technically give more than Canadians, it's because Canada is a more generous country.

[jrmcmillan]

07:56 AM on 01/07/2011

I think this is a matter of measurement more than fact. More likely that Americans are simply more creative (translation: fraudulent) in their tax deductions.

This is also a mean average, not a median. If you have enough millionaires technically donating to their own not-for-profit foundations, you inflate the simple average, but obscure the average amounts of actual giving but average, working class Canadians and Americans.

Americans also give the majority of their deductible contributions to religious organizations who operate just under thinly-veiled, not-for-profit legal restrictions. How much of that goes to those in need versus building more mega-churches is arguable.

But I stand by my original thesis as well. Canadians are likely more honest when filing their taxes than their American counterparts.

[Michael J OConnell]

10:23 PM on 01/06/2011

However Americans give the bulk of their donations to religious oranizations. Only a portion of this finds its way to the poor and needy.

[Thee Purpleroot]

08:28 AM on 01/07/2011

You forgot to mention the tax write offs.

[justasaint72]

01:47 AM on 01/06/2011

I'm ripping up that cheque I wrote for the Fraser Institute!

[maurage]

08:24 PM on 01/05/2011

I understand that the founder of Facebook made a $100,000,000 donation to a school district or similar jurisdiction in New Jersey (Newark school board, as I recall). Am I ever glad that in Canada,
our schools are properly and on a sustainable basis founded through taxation so that I do not need to depend on the charitable and changing mood of some grandees for the education of my 3 kids.
Gee, the stats of the Fraser Institute are once more totally meaningless.

[edacelis]

05:38 PM on 01/05/2011

Canadians don't have to give as much because there aren't as many in need in Canada. Shame on the Frasier Institute, the NY Times, and Freakonomics for an obvious oversight.

[YankeeCanuck]

01:05 PM on 01/05/2011

Canada has pretty much avoided the mortgage meltdown and financial crisis. Our banks are regulated differently than those in the US. Everyone has basic health care--a decision made years ago and one which means higher taxes, particularly for those who earn more. No one minds. There was an exodus of young MDs to the states some years ago, to earn the big bucks--but once they married and had kids, they moved back. Health care and general safety in big cities is the reason.
Canadians are very big on volunteering--something the Fraser Institute "forgot" to mention. They are a neocon think tank whose studies support their foregone conclusions.

[Ken Maddox]

12:07 PM on 01/05/2011

You must consider Canada has a health care system to treat everyone. It is a government run single payer system that works well.
America has a health care system to treat everyone. It is a local enterprise that conducts car washes, cookie sales, and jars on check out counters to collect pennies and dimes for those in need of health care. I is not a government run single payer system and it stinks to high heaven.

[YankeeCanuck]

12:56 PM on 01/05/2011

And Canadians accepted that health care system years ago, knowing that it meant higher taxes. Personal income taxes are higher in Canada than in the US, as are taxes on just about everything else--especially liquor and gasoline.
If I moved back to the US, I would save $10-15,000 per year in income tax, for example.

[Ken Maddox]

01:03 PM on 01/05/2011

Come on back, we need your money! We have a Congress that must be paid.

[roxette]

04:06 AM on 01/06/2011

No you would not save $10-15,000 per year. You'll have to pay you health insurance. My husband and I have to pay 17,000$ a year in health care

[CHMB]

11:04 AM on 01/05/2011

The Frasier Institute!?!?!? Really!??! They are a terrible uber right wing think tank.

[pjlowry]

05:42 AM on 01/05/2011

With the current scandal regarding SKG, maybe we are not willing to waste our money on charities that don't give their donations to the cause they claim to support. I want to support charities, but I refuse to donate blindly without knowing where the money is going...

[Someone Out There]

12:22 AM on 01/05/2011

As yes, the Fraser Institute, which wants to abolish the minimum wage, to re-privatize Canadian health care, and denies global warming and the dangers of second hand smoke.

[CHMB]

11:06 AM on 01/05/2011

Fanned. I can't stand the Fraser Institut, either.

[YankeeCanuck]

12:59 PM on 01/05/2011

They have all the buzzwords--"patient-centred care", for example, as they study how to make the BC health care system "more efficient." Meaning, more privatised.
THey phrase their studies' questionnaires to get the result they want to see.
The worst neoconjob ever paid for with taxpayers' money!!!!!

[whoknew42]

05:29 PM on 01/04/2011

Americans give more to charity because they have to

[LisaViger]

05:08 PM on 01/04/2011

That's because we NEED to be more charitable. It's American citizens who are going hungry, are unemployed, foreclosed upon, homeless, without health care, without education ... those things aren't routinely happening to Canadians!

[whoknew42]

05:29 PM on 01/04/2011

exactly!

[Jeremyewilliams]

08:20 AM on 01/05/2011

Well, it is happening here (Nova Scotia) to some degree and seems to be increasing. No where near what the US is facing though. It does make sense that the US would donate more to their own people though. It's only ~4% difference anyway :p That's actually bad looking at the US, we in Canada are almost on par for donating? It shows the horribleness of the rich in the US.