WA behind on donations

NATIONAL Australia Bank’s Charitable Giving Index has revealed Western Australia is the least charitable state in the country.

During the first half of this year, WA's top 10 most charitable suburbs donated 0.13 per cent of their income towards charity. Australian Capital Territory residents donated the highest proportion of their incomes to charity, 0.21 per cent, and South Australia and Victoria were next at 0.20 per cent.

Mount Lawley, Leederville and Mount Claremont were WA’s top three donators as a percentage of income.

From a total dollar value, Mount Claremont was the state’s most generous suburb, followed by City Beach and Crawley.

The average amount donated by Western Australians between January and July this year was $145. New South Wales had the highest dollar value donations in the country, $192 per person, followed by Victoria and South Australia with $185 and $165 respectively.

About 600 charities were surveyed across the country, with humanitarian services receiving the highest proportion of donations - 32 per cent.

Community service and children/family-oriented charities were the second most popular with 15 per cent.

NAB worked in conjunction with Quantium and data was collected from donations made by credit card, BPAY and EFTPOS.