Study finds South is the most charitable region, Northeast the least

Published: 2007-10-10

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Americans in the South contributed a far greater portion of their incomes to charity than those in the Northeast in 2005, according to a new book on church giving. And when the calculations of charitable giving are limited to those made to churches and religious organizations, the average annual expenditures by Southern households in 2005 was nearly twice that of households in the Northeast. "The State of Church Giving Through 2005," which was to be published Oct. 15, is the latest in a series of analyses produced by Empty Tomb, an Illinois church stewardship research and consulting company. Husband and wife researchers John and Sylvia Ronsvalle analyzed data on charitable giving from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Expenditure Survey 2005, which put total charitable giving by Americans that year at $114.86 billion. Looking at charitable contributions as a percentage of after-tax income, the researchers found that Southerners gave 2.1 percent of their available income to charity, those in the Midwest 2 percent, those in the West 1.5 percent and those in the Northeast 1.2 percent.

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