How America Gives

How States Compare and How They Voted in the 2012 Election

October 5, 2014

This article was updated on March 23, 2016. See our editor’s note.

Giving as a percentage of adjusted gross income ranged from under 2 to more than 6 percent in 2012, with residents of Millard County, Utah, giving the most.

Rank	State	Rate of giving	Most generous county	Presidential vote in 2012
1	Utah	6.61%	Millard	Mitt Romney
2	Miss.	5.04%	Noxubee	Mitt Romney
3	Ala.	4.87%	Perry	Mitt Romney
4	Tenn.	4.63%	Obion	Mitt Romney
5	Okla.	4.46%	Cimarron	Mitt Romney
6	Ga.	4.31%	Floyd	Mitt Romney
7	Idaho	4.20%	Madison	Mitt Romney
8	S.C.	4.16%	Hampton	Mitt Romney
9	Ark.	4.14%	Dallas	Mitt Romney
10	D.C.	4.00%	District of Columbia	Barack Obama
11	N.C.	3.79%	Anson	Mitt Romney
12	Nebr.	3.67%	Perkins	Mitt Romney
13	Tex.	3.59%	Lipscomb	Mitt Romney
14	Kans.	3.57%	Chase	Mitt Romney
15	Ky.	3.46%	Carlisle	Mitt Romney
16	S.D.	3.45%	Jones	Mitt Romney
16	Wyo.	3.45%	Lincoln	Mitt Romney
18	Fla.	3.38%	Lafayette	Barack Obama
18	Mo.	3.38%	Taney	Mitt Romney
20	Ind.	3.34%	Wells	Mitt Romney
20	La.	3.34%	Bienville	Mitt Romney
22	Md.	3.20%	Prince George’s	Barack Obama
23	Wash.	3.08%	Adams	Barack Obama
24	Mich.	3.07%	Kalamazoo	Barack Obama
25	Ariz.	3.06%	Graham	Mitt Romney
26	Iowa	3.03%	Sioux	Barack Obama
27	Mont.	3.01%	Carter	Mitt Romney
28	N.M.	3.00%	Roosevelt	Barack Obama
29	N.Y.	2.98%	New York	Barack Obama
30	Nev.	2.92%	Lincoln	Barack Obama
31	Ore.	2.88%	Malheur	Barack Obama
32	Colo.	2.87%	Cheyenne	Barack Obama
33	Va.	2.85%	Martinsville City	Barack Obama
34	W.Va.	2.83%	Mingo	Mitt Romney
35	Ohio	2.82%	Holmes	Barack Obama
36	Ill.	2.80%	Pulaski	Barack Obama
37	Calif.	2.79%	Siskiyou	Barack Obama
38	Alaska	2.78%	Southeast Fairbanks	Mitt Romney
39	Hawaii	2.77%	Maui	Barack Obama
40	Del.	2.74%	Kent	Barack Obama
41	Minn.	2.70%	Stevens	Barack Obama
42	Penn.	2.68%	Juniata	Barack Obama
43	Conn.	2.58%	Fairfield	Barack Obama
44	N.D.	2.54%	Golden Valley	Mitt Romney
45	Wis.	2.52%	Door	Barack Obama
46	Vt.	2.49%	Lamoille	Barack Obama
47	Mass.	2.43%	Suffolk	Barack Obama
48	R.I.	2.20%	Bristol	Barack Obama
49	Maine	2.13%	Lincoln	Barack Obama
50	N.J.	2.12%	Mercer	Barack Obama
51	N.H.	1.85%	Grafton	Barack Obama

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This article was updated on March 23, 2016. See our editor’s note.

Giving as a percentage of adjusted gross income ranged from under 2 to more than 6 percent in 2012, with residents of Millard County, Utah, giving the most.

Rank	State	Rate of giving	Most generous county	Presidential vote in 2012
1	Utah	6.61%	Millard	Mitt Romney
2	Miss.	5.04%	Noxubee	Mitt Romney
3	Ala.	4.87%	Perry	Mitt Romney
4	Tenn.	4.63%	Obion	Mitt Romney
5	Okla.	4.46%	Cimarron	Mitt Romney
6	Ga.	4.31%	Floyd	Mitt Romney
7	Idaho	4.20%	Madison	Mitt Romney
8	S.C.	4.16%	Hampton	Mitt Romney
9	Ark.	4.14%	Dallas	Mitt Romney
10	D.C.	4.00%	District of Columbia	Barack Obama
11	N.C.	3.79%	Anson	Mitt Romney
12	Nebr.	3.67%	Perkins	Mitt Romney
13	Tex.	3.59%	Lipscomb	Mitt Romney
14	Kans.	3.57%	Chase	Mitt Romney
15	Ky.	3.46%	Carlisle	Mitt Romney
16	S.D.	3.45%	Jones	Mitt Romney
16	Wyo.	3.45%	Lincoln	Mitt Romney
18	Fla.	3.38%	Lafayette	Barack Obama
18	Mo.	3.38%	Taney	Mitt Romney
20	Ind.	3.34%	Wells	Mitt Romney
20	La.	3.34%	Bienville	Mitt Romney
22	Md.	3.20%	Prince George’s	Barack Obama
23	Wash.	3.08%	Adams	Barack Obama
24	Mich.	3.07%	Kalamazoo	Barack Obama
25	Ariz.	3.06%	Graham	Mitt Romney
26	Iowa	3.03%	Sioux	Barack Obama
27	Mont.	3.01%	Carter	Mitt Romney
28	N.M.	3.00%	Roosevelt	Barack Obama
29	N.Y.	2.98%	New York	Barack Obama
30	Nev.	2.92%	Lincoln	Barack Obama
31	Ore.	2.88%	Malheur	Barack Obama
32	Colo.	2.87%	Cheyenne	Barack Obama
33	Va.	2.85%	Martinsville City	Barack Obama
34	W.Va.	2.83%	Mingo	Mitt Romney
35	Ohio	2.82%	Holmes	Barack Obama
36	Ill.	2.80%	Pulaski	Barack Obama
37	Calif.	2.79%	Siskiyou	Barack Obama
38	Alaska	2.78%	Southeast Fairbanks	Mitt Romney
39	Hawaii	2.77%	Maui	Barack Obama
40	Del.	2.74%	Kent	Barack Obama
41	Minn.	2.70%	Stevens	Barack Obama
42	Penn.	2.68%	Juniata	Barack Obama
43	Conn.	2.58%	Fairfield	Barack Obama
44	N.D.	2.54%	Golden Valley	Mitt Romney
45	Wis.	2.52%	Door	Barack Obama
46	Vt.	2.49%	Lamoille	Barack Obama
47	Mass.	2.43%	Suffolk	Barack Obama
48	R.I.	2.20%	Bristol	Barack Obama
49	Maine	2.13%	Lincoln	Barack Obama
50	N.J.	2.12%	Mercer	Barack Obama
51	N.H.	1.85%	Grafton	Barack Obama

Source: Chronicle analysis of Internal Revenue Service data

Editor’s Note: In this and other stories on How America Gives, we used ZIP-code data from the IRS to make comparisons between 2006 and 2012, the only years for which income and charitable donation data were available broken out by income and geography. However, to protect privacy, the IRS suppresses some ZIP-code data when there are fewer than 20 filers in a given income group. As a result, some figures are lower than what they’d otherwise be. The state-level figures reported here have been recalculated to account for this.

Since our original report, we’ve updated our interactive with county-level data for 2012, which do not have any data suppressed. Unfortunately, such data are not available for 2006.

Many of the figures used in this and other How America Gives stories are based on the original 2006 and 2012 ZIP-code data to make those year-over-year comparisons.

For the latest and most accurate 2012 data, see our interactive.