A new study from WalletHub shows that Utah, one of the most religious states in the nation, is the most charitable state in the U.S., with residents there giving the highest share of their income to charity.
The personal finance website released its list of the “Most Charitable States for 2021” on Monday.
Overall, Utah was ranked as the most charitable state in the U.S. as it was the state with the highest share of its population that donated money and also was tied with Minnesota for the highest volunteer rate.
Utah was also identified as the state where residents donated the highest share of their income to charity.
Utah’s ranking on the top of the list comes as Gallup data from 2015 found that the Beehive State has the highest rate of religious attendance in the country, with 51% of residents attending church services at least once a week.
Arkansas and Georgia, two other states where residents donated a higher share of their income to charity, also had higher than average religious attendance rates, 45% and 39%, respectively.
On the other hand, most of the states with the lowest percentage of donated income have much lower rates of weekly religious attendance.
Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine and Alaska, which took four of the bottom five spots, all have weekly church attendance rates lower than 30%, according to the Gallup study.
Of the 50 states, West Virginia residents gave the lowest share of their income to charity. While 34% of West Virginians attend church weekly, the state has one of the lowest median household incomes in the country, according to the World Population Review.
Share of donated income to charity was just one of many factors that the WalletHub study looked at when ranking the most and least charitable states.
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SOURCE: Christian Post, Ryan Foley
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