By BNG staff
America’s poor and middle class are giving more to charity even though they’re earning less, while the country’s rich are earning more but giving a smaller portion of their income to charity.
That’s the conclusion of a recent report released by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, which tabulated IRS data from 2012.
Americans on average give about 3 percent of their income to charity, the Chronicle’s study found. But those who earn more than $200,000 reduced their charitable giving by 4.6 percent from 2006 to 2012, while Americans who earn less than $100,000 increased their charitable donations by 4.5 percent during the same period. Low and middle income Americans earned less, on average, than they did six years earlier.
The study also found that most of the states and largest cities with the highest rate of charitable giving were in the South — the region which also registers the highest level of church involvement. At the top of the list, though, were Utah and Salt Lake City, where there’s a high concentration of Mormons.
— This article originally appeared in Herald, BNG’s bi-monthly magazine. To find out more about the magazine, click here.