Philippines among least generous in Southeast Asia, study suggests

MANILA, Philippines — Filipinos are among the least civically engaged people in Southeast Asia, a Gallup global report suggests.

The Philippines obtained a score of 28 on Gallup’s “The World’s Most Generous” index, while its neighbor Indonesia—a lower middle-income country—topped the rankings alongside Australia with a score of 59.

Myanmar and Singapore scored 54, making them among the most generous in the world. Thailand had a score of 34, Laos got 20 and Cambodia scored 18.

However, other Southeast Asian nations such as Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam were not included in the Gallup index.

In the previous study, Philippines obtained a score of 30. Filipinos were also found to be among people most likely to volunteer time to an organization.

Other countries found to have highest civic engagement score in the 2017 report were New Zealand, United States, Ireland, United Kingdom, Kenya and Bahrain.

“Almost one billion people reported volunteering their time to an organization in the past month, nearly 1.4 billion said they donated money to a charity and more than two billion reported helping a stranger in need,” John Clifton, Gallup global managing partner, said.

In 2017, Gallup asked adults in 146 countries—1,000 adults per nation—whether they had donated money to a charity, volunteered time to an organization or helped a stranger in need within the past month.

The margin of sampling error ranges from ±2.0 percentage points to ±5.4 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level. — Gaea Katreena Cabico