Today is Giving Tuesday: Ohio ranks highly as charitable state

Donations to local charities don t have to be new items, but they should be in good, working condition, leaders say. STAFF FILE/2015

Donations to local charities don t have to be new items, but they should be in good, working condition, leaders say. STAFF FILE/2015

With holiday shopping for Black Friday and Cyber Monday now over, people are being asked to pull out their wallets one more time.

It’s Giving Tuesday, a day that’s meant to push people to donate to their favorite charities and organizations.

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America is one of the most charitable countries, ranking No. 5 out of 140 nations, according to personal finance website WalletHub. In 2016, Americans gave more than $389 billion to charity, according to the National Phillanthropic Trust.

WalletHub released a state-by-state ranking of the most charitable states and Ohio was in the top half. Ohio ranked No. 16, well above the surrounding states of No. 41 Kentucky, No. 38 Indiana, No. 39 Michigan, No. 24 Pennsylvania and No. 36 West Virginia, according to WalletHub.

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For the ranking, WalletHub considered the rate at which people volunteer in each state, the share of the population that makes donations and the share of aggregate gross income donated to charity, among other factors. Below is a list of the top 20 most charitable states, according to WalletHub’s ranking.

1. Utah

2. Maryland

3. Minnesota

4. Wyoming

5. Wisconsin

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6. Washington

7. Virginia

8. South Dakota

9. Georgia

10. Oklahoma

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11. Connecticut

12. Kansas

13. New Hampshire

14. Oregon

15. New York

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16. Ohio

17. North Dakota

18. Missouri

19. South Carolina

20. Nebraska

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