According to a global study done by Remitly, a digital finance services provider, South Africa is the world’s most generous nation.
he psychological assessment developed by Christian Smith (University of Notre Dame) and Jonathan P. Hill (Calvin College) was surveyed with more than 4500 participants across 25 countries, being asked 10 questions. South Africans scored a total of 51.57/60, indicating how much we value generosity. The Interpersonal Generosity Scale (IGS) is a research-validated tool that does not measure how generous people are with money or materialism, but generosity based on human behaviour such as empathy, love for one another, compassion, and goodwill. The purpose of the scale is to calculate how generous, compassionate, helpful, and thoughtful people are, putting others’ needs before their own. Financial generosity was not measured, as this has been covered in other analyses.
Questions were asked with the answer options being “strongly agree”, “agree”, “somewhat agree”, “somewhat disagree”, “disagree”, or “strongly disagree”.
According to remitly.com, “Generosity plays a big part in how people connect and give back to those around them. The results revealed to what extent individuals, and nations, exhibit interpersonal generosity such as time, energy, and thoughts in their everyday lives”. This assessment helps us to measure how generous and giving people are, and how welcoming nations around the world might be for those looking to move and start a new life in a new country.”
Our nation is just as generous as they are friendly. They don’t mind helping their comrades, and make decisions and consider the welfare of others. “Higher national scores indicate populations that demonstrate more consistent patterns of kindness, supportive behaviour, and generosity. South Africans agreed the most with statements focused on the importance of others being happy and not solely focusing on themselves, showing high levels of empathy.”
The top 10 countries include South Africa, the Philippines, the United States, Ireland, Canada, Portugal, Greece, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Mexico. These countries all displayed kindness, goodwill, and empathy.
The question may arise: What does generosity have to do with moving to a new country? Being generous, it is a way to get involved and form closer bonds with those around you, helping you with a sense of belonging. “Getting involved with local community groups can be a way to make friends and get a deeper connection to your new home. In addition, moving into a generous society can help you get settled in a new country and community.”
These results, as from November 2025, shows that South Africa is leading the way as a population with consistent patterns of kindness, supportive behaviour, and generosity.
By Yolanda du toit
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