World Giving Index 2016 was released

Celebrating its 7th year of appearance, the CAF World Giving Index is a leading authority on global generosity. By measuring three different kinds of giving, it provides a simple and universally understood picture of charitable behavior across the world. For the 2016 World Giving Index, the foundation polled an average of 1,000 people in 140 different countries or regions, asking them if in the last month they had helped a stranger, donated money to charity or volunteered their time.

Myanmar in Burma has been declared the most generous country in the world, surpassing the United States and Australia in the World Giving Index 2016, the rankings conducted by the Charities Aid Foundation. The index assesses 140 countries according to three categories: people availability of helping a stranger, donations of money and volunteering. According to researches, 91% of people in Myanmar have donated to charity last year, 62% said they had helped a stranger and 55% said that they were involved in volunteering, according to The Telegraph.

"The large, positive numbers could be the result of Theravada Buddhism practiced by a majority of the population in Myanmar, where devotees donate to support those who practice monasticism- a practice known as Sangha Dana", as it is shown in the report.

On the 2nd and 3rd positions of the top there are the United States and Australia. Britain and Ireland have been also in the top 10, as 69% of British people donated money, 33% practiced volunteering and 61% said they helped a foreigner.

While donating time and money to charitable causes is becoming more and more popular around the world, the situation is still not pretty in China, which ranked 140th out of 140 in the poll - just behind Palestine, Yemen, Greece and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Only 24% of Chinese respondents said that they had helped a stranger in the past month. In comparison, 81% of Iraqis said they had lent a hand to a stranger in need.