Which State is More Charitable? Illinois or Missouri? It Depends

Charity can take different forms. Most probably think of it as donating money to a cause, but it can also be those who volunteer time to a non-profit cause. When it comes to being charitable, do you think Illinois or Missouri is more giving? That depends on what you define as charity.

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There's an interesting new study shared by WalletHub documenting the most charitable states in America. They seem to focus on two different areas: Volunteering and Charitable Giving. Here's an interactive map showing what they found:

If you look closely, you can see that Illinois barely edges out Missouri in both categories coming in as the 14th most charitable state in America.

Hold on, it's not that simple. Fidelity Charitable also did a study on what type of giving each city specializes in. They note that the St. Louis, Missouri area excels in giving to religious organizations who do good work in the community while Chicago, Illinois does more for human services.

The bottom line is that when you factor in charitable giving to ministries and churches, Missouri edges Illinois a slight bit.

On a side note, Iowa surprisingly comes in at #21 well below Illinois and Missouri. Let's look at this in a positive light though. All 3 states in the tri-state area come in among the top half of states when it comes to giving in America. The more kindness and selflessness, the better.