JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

This study examines the association between national levels of human flourishing and charitable giving. Human flourishing was measured using the Global Flourishing Study’s Flourishing Index and includes survey data from over 200,000 respondents across 22 countries. We assessed whether higher levels of flourishing were associated with an increase in charitable giving. National charitability was measured by the Charity Aid Foundation’s World Giving Index—an annual report that asks residents whether they have done the following within the past month: helped a stranger, donated money to charity, and volunteered their time to an organization. A moderate association was found between the Flourishing Index and either helping a stranger (R2 = 0.25) or volunteering time (R2 = 0.28). However, there was little association between the Flourishing Index and donating money (R2 = 0.01). These findings suggest that policies aimed at improving population well-being could simultaneously encourage engagement in prosocial behaviours. Investing in social programs may increase volunteering frequency and improve social cohesion. Conversely, the lack of association between human flourishing and monetary acts of charity suggests a need for different strategies to improve monetary-based charitable giving.