Collier County is Florida’s most charitable, survey finds.

Only one of Florida’s 67 counties can claim to be the most giving. Collier county.

Collier County, Monroe County, and Walton County came out on top when SmartAsset looked at IRS data to determine which counties had the most residents who donated money, according to a recent article by Mark H. Bickel of Naples Daily News.

What to Know About SmartAsset’s Generosity Study

• The study examined how much people donate as a percentage of their net income, as well as the proportion of people in each county who donate to charity.

• The study considers charitable contributions as a percentage of net income, as well as the proportion of taxpayers who made any philanthropic contribution in a specific county.

• Collier County had a 2.8% contribution-to-income ratio.

• Collier recorded 11.5% of returns that included philanthropic gifts.

• Collier has a Charitable County Index score of 50.48, which edges Monroe (49.67).

Methodology of Generosity StudyTo determine the most giving places, SmartAsset evaluated two characteristics in each county: the amount of money people donate as a percentage of their net income, and the proportion of people who make charitable donations.

To measure the amount of money people donate as a percentage of their income, SmartAsset first computed everyone’s net income in each county. SmartAsset analyzed tax return data and accounted for federal, state, and municipal taxes paid. SmartAsst also accounted for deductible entries such as mortgage interest, points, and insurance payments. SmartAsset then divided each county’s total charity donations by its total net income to determine how much money each county’s citizens had donated in comparison to their income.

Next, they calculated the total number of individual tax returns with charitable contributions and divided it by the total number of individual tax returns in each county. This provided them the percentage of people in each county who make charity contributions.

They then indexed and weighted the two factors to create the Most Charitable Places Index.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News 

The post Collier County is Florida’s most charitable, survey finds. appeared first on Naples News Now.