NI one of the highest donators to charity in the UK, report shows

NORTHERN Ireland has some of the most generous areas in the UK, a new report reveals.

The British public donated a record £13.9bn to charity in 2023 with some of the country’s least affluent areas among the most generous.

The UK total marks a 9% increase on the 2022 figure — which stood at £12.7bn — as average monthly donations increased by nearly 40% to reach £65.

The report, produced by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), also shows that some of the UK’S poorest areas gave the most to charitable causes over the past year as a proportion of household income.

All Northern Ireland’s parliamentary constituencies are in the 100 most generous constituencies in the UK.

In Northern Ireland, donors in North Down are the most generous, giving an average of 3.0% of their household income to good causes each year.

This compares to the lowest areas of Belfast West and Belfast North, where people still donate a generous 2.2% of their household income — still well above the national average of 1.6%.

Donors in Belfast West, one of the most deprived parts of Northern Ireland where more than a quarter (28.5%) of children live in poverty, gave an average of 2.2% of their household income to good causes.

After North Down, the most generous constituencies in Northern Ireland as a proportion of income were South Down (3.0%), West Tyrone (2.9%), Foyle (2.9%) and Fermanagh and South Tyrone (2.8%).

The wealthy new London constituency of Kensington and Bayswater gave the second most money to charity but this constituted just 0.5% of household income — the lowest out of all constituencies in the country.

The most generous constituency was Sheffield Hallam, where residents gave 3.2%.

But the report highlighted that the number of people regularly donating to charity had fallen from 65% in 2019 to fewer than six in 10 (58%) in 2023.

Neil Heslop, chief executive of CAF, said that it was “concerning that we’re relying on a dwindling group of regular givers, and the typical donation is static and eroded by inflation”.