S’poreans more likely to give money than volunteer, help a stranger: Study

SINGAPORE — When it comes to giving to charity, Singaporeans are more likely to give from the pocket, than give up their time to volunteer or help out a stranger.

The World Giving Index, compiled by UK-based non-profit Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), showed that nearly six in 10 in Singapore gave money to charity in the month before when polled last year, but less than three in 10 volunteered at a charity, and about four in ten had helped a stranger.

Based on these factors, the CAF ranked Singapore 34th on the index, well behind neighbouring countries like Myanmar, which was ranked first, and Malaysia, which placed tenth. But this is a significant improvement from 114th place in the 2012 index and 64th place in the 2013 index.

The index ranked 145 countries using 2014 data from Gallup’s World View World Poll, an ongoing research project carried out in more than 140 countries. In most countries surveyed, 1,000 questionnaires are completed by a representative sample of individuals, with larger samples for big countries like China and Russia. Respondents were asked how often they donate to charity, how often they volunteer and how often they help strangers.

Singapore ranked 18th for how often residents gave money to charity, but placed 89th for how often they help strangers and 42nd for how often they volunteer.

Nonetheless, the Republic was among the top five most improved country over time, improving 11 percentage points over five years. In 2012, for example, only 29 per cent of the respondents gave money to charity, 8 per cent volunteered, and 24 per cent helped a stranger.

The report, released today (Nov 10), attributed the high levels of giving in Myanmar — where nine out of 10 gave money to charity — and Thailand to high levels of Theravada Buddhism, where many devotees regularly give money and time to ordained monks and nuns, as well as to the upkeep of temples.

The country also came in top for volunteering, with half the population doing so, followed by Sri Lanka, Liberia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States.

“However the achievement will be contrasted with the continuing plight of the Rohingya people within the country,” the report stated, referring to the violent persecution of the Rohingyas, a Muslim minority group who are not allowed to vote and have been driven from their homes to neighbouring countries or into camps.

The report also observed that across the world, people responded to those in need. For example, the proportion of people donating money in Ukraine more than quadrupled last year compared with the previous year, probably due to fundraising efforts for those affected by the conflict. Also, Iraq emerged top in helping a stranger despite the security situation in the country.

At a global level, the study found that more people are donating money to charity, with almost a third of the world (or 31.5 per cent) giving money to charity in the month before — a rise of 3.2 percentage points from 2013.

However, the global proportion of people who said they volunteered time fell slightly, to 21 per cent from 21.3 per cent. And almost half of the world’s adult population said they helped a stranger last year according to the poll, a slight increase on the previous year.