Kenyans have been ranked amongst the 10 most generous nations in the world, according to a new report.
The UK-based Charities Aid Foundation said that Kenya ranked eighth (among 146 countries) in terms of its three key criteria – helping a stranger, donating money and volunteering for good causes.
It is the only African country in the top ten.
The report said that 72 percent of Kenyans were prepared to help a stranger, 46 percent donated money and 45 percent gave up their own time to volunteer.
The CAF World Giving Index 2018 includes data from 146 countries collected throughout 2017.
It said that it has seen an upward trend for Africa in terms of generosity towards those in need over the past decade as Africa’s middle class continues to grow.
“With as many as 2.4 billion people set to join the world’s middle classes by 2030, it is crucial that we ensure that the groundwork is put in place to support and encourage a mass engagement in giving,” the report said.
“We estimate that if the world’s middle classes were to give just 0.5% of their spending that could amount to $319 billion in resources for civil society organisations annually in 2030.”
The CAF report said that while those in developed countries are the most likely to donate money (42 percent), those in developing countries are the most likely to have helped a stranger (54 percent).
Volunteering time has largely similar participation levels across both the developed (24 percent) and developing (21 percent) countries.
The most likely age group globally to have helped a stranger are those aged 30-49 years, followed closely by the youngest age group, 15-29 year olds.
Indonesia still has the highest proportion of its people volunteering with a score of 53%, followed by Liberia in second place and Kenya in third place.
Across the continents, helping a stranger is the most common giving behaviour.
Oceania (65 percent) and Africa (58 percent) record the highest rates of helping a stranger whilst Europe has the lowest prevalence (44 percent).
Europe also has the lowest rates of volunteering (19 percent) of any of the other continents.