People in New Jersey are willing to lend a helping hand, but a study shows we’re not as charitable as some other states.
WalletHub, a financial website that writes many state-ranking articles, ranks New Jersey as the 35th most charitable state in the nation.
Philanthropy is measured using two categories divided into 17 different indicators. “Volunteerism and service” and “charitable giving” are measures that determine which states are the most generous in sharing time and treasure.
Indicators include volunteer ratio, population fundraising ratio, donation revenue ratio, homeless shelters and food banks. Per capita public charities, including “churches, hospitals, qualified medical research organizations affiliated with hospitals, schools, colleges and universities,” as well as Google-based search volume for the terms “volunteer,” “nonprofit organization,” and “charity,” were also considered, along with several other metrics.
New Jersey didn’t rank in the bottom five for any of the metrics listed in the story, but it ranked fifth in the “percent of population donating” metric.
The Garden State ranked 13th in the charitable giving category but ranked 39th in the volunteer and service category.
Sources listed in the ranking include the U.S. Census Bureau, Port Compliance, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Internal Revenue Service, Feeding America, Windows USA, AmeriCorps, GreatNonprofits and Google Ads.
Wyoming was ranked as the most charitable state, while New Mexico was ranked as the least charitable.
The United States is the sixth most generous country in the world, according to the World Giving Index cited by WalletHub in its story.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Most Philanthropic State List Shows New Jersey Rankings
