by Doug MacGunnigle, WPRO News
Rhode Island is the least charitable state in the United States, according to a new analysis by financial web site WalletHub.com.
The most charitable state in the nation is Utah, followed by Maryland, Idaho, and Oregon. Nearby Massachusetts ranked 40th, and Connecticut came in at number 11.
Other than Rhode Island, Louisiana, California, and Arizona were the lowest ranking states.
SEE THE FULL ANALYSIS AND RANKINGS HERE
WalletHub reports that 95.4 percent of households donate to charities, each contributing an annual average of $2,974. According to the National Philanthropic Trust, in 2014 alone, Americans gave more than $338 billion, 72 percent of which came directly from individuals.
In addition to financial giving, WalletHub took donations of one’s time into account as well. Nearly 63 million people volunteered with an organization at least once between September 2013 and September 2014.
In order to identify the most and least philanthropic U.S. states, WalletHub analyzed each of the 50 states across eight key metrics. They then calculated the overall score for each state and ranked them using the weighted average across all metrics.
SEE THE RESULTS BELOW:
