Not a Single Utah City Made List Of Most Caring

Why Were Utah Cities Left Off Most Caring List?

In a list of most caring cities in America from Wallethub, not one Utah city makes it into the top 100. Something seems suspicious. How could a state that always gets high marks for charity not have a single city on the list? A study by the same people, Wallethub, just listed Utah as the most charitable state in 2023. What gives? 

Maybe it is the methodology. 

In order to identify the areas that care the most, WalletHub compared the 100 largest cities across 38 key indicators of a compassionate spirit. Our data set ranges from the share of sheltered homeless persons to the volunteering hours per capita to the share of income donated to charity. 

Digging in deeper, it does look like there was a lot of analysis of government initiatives that also work with local charities to address community problems. Perhaps this is why cities in Utah didn’t make the cut. It seems like Utah works for solutions that don’t always involve a government program. 

They also looked at online giving to charity. With lots of religious people in Utah, especially members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, much of what is donated goes to churches who work with charitable organizations from there. 

The city on the top of the list is Madison, Wisconsin followed by Boston, Massachusetts and Virginia Beach, Virginia. Here is what they said about Madison:  

Madison residents search for “charitable donations” on Google more than people in any other city, and they’re in the top 10 when it comes to per-capita online giving. In addition, people in Madison provide great physical care for both other residents and their animal companions. The city ranks first in the nation for both doctors and EMTs per 100,000 residents, and fourth for pet shelters and rescue services (per the square root of the population). 

I guess it just shows how looking at different aspects of giving can have wildly different results. Wallethub did both surveys and each gives a different picture.