VANCOUVER, CANADA—Utah continues to be the most generous state in the union—and the most generous jurisdiction in all of the United States and Canada—according to the Fraser Institute’s Generosity in the United States and Canada: The 2008 Generosity Index (U.S. Edition).

The 2008 Generosity Index, measures and compares monetary generosity using readily available data on the extent and depth of charitable donations as recorded on personal income tax returns from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The report shows that Utah is the top-ranked jurisdiction for generosity, with 36.0 percent of tax filers claiming a charitable donation on their income tax returns, donating 3.84 percent of aggregate income to registered charities. Maryland is second overall, and the District of Columbia is third overall.

At the other end of the spectrum, South Dakota places 49th and North Dakota 50th in the U.S. Generosity Index, slightly ahead of bottom-ranked West Virginia. On percentage of tax-filers donating to charity, only North Dakota (15.8 percent) and West Virginia (14.3 percent) failed to reach the 16-percent threshold, and West Virginia was the only state that fell short of the one-percent threshold on the measure of aggregate income donated to charity.

Though not used to calculate the Generosity Index, the report also includes data on average charitable donations. Wyoming ($10,021) topped this set of rankings. Utah ($7,495) and D.C. ($7, 023) followed in second and third, respectively. Rhode Island ($2,698) ranked last among U.S. jurisdictions.

Elements of the Generosity Index also rank Canadian provinces alongside U.S. jurisdictions. In this overall measurement, U.S. jurisdictions dominate the upper rankings of the Index. For instance, the highest-rated Canadian province, Manitoba, places just 37th on the overall rankings, and Canadian provinces and territories occupy 12 of the bottom 20 positions on the Generosity Index.

“This helps highlight what we have termed a generosity gap between the United States and Canada,” said Niels Veldhuis, Fraser Institute director of fiscal studies. “The gap is persistent and dramatic.”