This New Report Exposes How Much Each Suburb Gives To Charity

Australians are a pretty generous mob when it comes to dishin’ out our hard earned cash to support a good cause. But a new report from NAB delves into just how much we spend each year and ranks each suburb on their generosity.

The bank’s ‘Charitable Giving Index for 2016’ measured just how much we dished out in the 12 months preceding February. Amongst the data, there were some interesting findings.

First up, it found that overall charity giving increased a whopping 6.5% over the past year, up from just 2.4% the period earlier. Great result us!

NAB chief economist Alan Oster told SMH,

“With overall anxiety levels easing, consumers appear to have responded positively in their charitable spending behaviours with fewer consumers cutting back on their charitable spending this past year.”

On a national level, Victoria takes the cake with growth at a staggering 9.6%.

Via NAB

Some of the top ends of town hand out the most cash, with Middle Park in Melbourne taking out the top spot at an average of $327 donated per person, per year. As NAB points out, that’s “more than three times the national average”.

The top 20 suburbs have average taxable incomes of $120,000 – so it’s good to see that they’re dipping into their pockets.

But that might not be deep enough – things take an interesting turn when comparing the suburbs by the percentage giving out of their total household income.

In this case, the top 20 most generous suburbs have an average income of under $A60,000 in comparison. From this perspective, it’s actually Castlemaine in Victoria who are the biggest givers, with 0.36% of their total annual salary (of just A$42,650 per year) going to a good cause.

Blaxland, in the Blue Mountains in NSW, was next in line with 0.35% of average income given to charity, while households in Melbourne’s Fitzroy North and Brunswick East held up with 0.33 and 0.32%.

Via NAB

The report also investigated where all the dosh is winding up, with humanitarian services closest to our hearts, claiming a 35% share of Australia’s dollars. Health and disability groups and charitable lotteries, have the next biggest share with 12% each.