Most Generous States: See How Illinois Ranks

It's the time of year when our thoughts turn to giving, not receiving, and to helping those who aren't as fortunate. But when it comes to generosity, how does Illinois compare with the rest of the country? As it turns out, not so great.

In fact, more than half of the U.S. states are better at sharing their blessings with others. This year, Illinois ranked at No 29 out of the 50 states overall when it comes to generosity, according to WalletHub. The state is 37th when it comes to volunteering, but Illinoisans don't fare too badly when it comes to charitable giving, ranking at No. 16.

With Nov. 28 being #GivingTuesday as a way to combat consumerism and help communities and nearly a third of all annual giving taking place in December, WalletHub on Tuesday released its report on 2017's Most Charitable States as well as a Charity Calculator to help donors maximize their philanthropic impact.

To determine the most generous states, WalletHub compared them based on 14 key metrics including volunteer rates, the percentage of taxpayers who donated to charity, and the percentage of sheltered homeless.

WalletHub's ranking of 2017's Most & Least Charitable States names Utah as the most generous state for the third straight year, followed by Maryland, Minnesota, Wyoming, Wisconsin, Washington, and Virginia. Rounding out the top 10 were South Dakota, Georgia, and Oklahoma.

The 10 least charitable states are: Kentucky, Montana, California, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Louisiana, Nevada, Rhode Island, and Hawaii, according to the website.

The latest World Giving Index shows that Americans are among the world’s most generous people, ranking No. 5 out of 140 countries, according to the WalletHub newsrelease. U.S. donors in 2016 gave more than $389 billion to charity, with 72 percent of the money coming directly from individuals, according to the National Philanthropic Trust.

Americans do more than give money to help others, they also contribute their time. Nearly 63 million people volunteer in the U.S., serving a combined total of 7.9 billion hours per year, the equivalent of $184 billion of service.

Methodology

WalletHub says: In order to determine the most philanthropic states, WalletHub’s analysts compared the 50 states across two key dimensions, including “Volunteering & Service” and “Charitable Giving”.

We evaluated those dimensions using 14 key metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the “most charitable.”

Finally, we determined each state’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its total score and used the resulting scores to rank-order the states.

Image via Shutterstock

By Deb Belt, Patch National Staff