Study Finds Mecklenburg Is One Of The Most Generous North Carolina Counties

A new study by SmartAsset ranked the most generous counties in North Carolina. And Mecklenburg County ranked near the top of the list. To create this list researchers measured how much money people donate as a percentage of their net income and the proportion of people in each county who donate to charitable causes.

View the most generous counties in North Carolina below:

Contributions as Percentage of Income:  1.43%

Percentage of Returns Itemizing Charitable Contributions: 9.77%

Charitable County Index: 31.39

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Iredell+County,+NC/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x88515a5200f53299:0xf4eb20ac5d2dd7e0

Contributions as Percentage of Income:  1.56%

Percentage of Returns Itemizing Charitable Contributions: 9.78%

Charitable County Index: 32.21

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Moore+County,+NC/@35.2595994,-79.5478465,10.75z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x89ab5777cbccf3dd:0x9b655a0ffb000e60!8m2!3d35.3674493!4d-79.4703885

Contributions as Percentage of Income:  2.23%

Percentage of Returns Itemizing Charitable Contributions: 8.35%

Charitable County Index: 32.86

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Watauga+County,+NC/@36.2513113,-81.8297325,11z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x8850d0d7e9925b87:0x32fc062a92d6a436!8m2!3d36.1941825!4d-81.734942

Contributions as Percentage of Income:  1.86%

Percentage of Returns Itemizing Charitable Contributions: 9.35%

Charitable County Index: 33.01

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Polk+County,+NC/@35.296061,-82.2311672,11.75z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x8859dfe02c8a8d85:0xaf614048eb2dc72!8m2!3d35.2686842!4d-82.1713632

Contributions as Percentage of Income:  1.87%

Percentage of Returns Itemizing Charitable Contributions: 10.88%

Charitable County Index: 36.60

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Durham+County,+NC/@36.051289,-78.9973976,11z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89ace93cc6aed62d:0x242454152e905754!8m2!3d36.0221805!4d-78.9031279

Contributions as Percentage of Income:  1.73%

Percentage of Returns Itemizing Charitable Contributions: 12.75%

Charitable County Index: 41.42

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Wake+County,+NC/@35.7973409,-78.9051702,10z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89ac88ccfabb3d93:0xa41a40b5c635c72c!8m2!3d35.8031909!4d-78.5660852

Contributions as Percentage of Income:  2.18%

Percentage of Returns Itemizing Charitable Contributions: 12.13%

Charitable County Index: 41.42

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Mecklenburg+County,+NC/@35.2579421,-81.0843444,10z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x8856abc96599e1e5:0x19f6c12dbcdbcbed!8m2!3d35.2632655!4d-80.8543847

Contributions as Percentage of Income:  2.00%

Percentage of Returns Itemizing Charitable Contributions: 13.14%

Charitable County Index: 42.64

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Union+County,+NC/@35.011111,-80.6987602,11z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x8855cd4d43af5f23:0x9ba654f3f53bc105!8m2!3d34.9338651!4d-80.543845

Contributions as Percentage of Income:  2.15%

Percentage of Returns Itemizing Charitable Contributions: 13.14%

Charitable County Index: 43.54

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Orange+County,+NC/@36.0521855,-79.2477751,11z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89acdd65dbd3e811:0x49b749c57542ea3e!8m2!3d36.0263022!4d-79.1096901

Contributions as Percentage of Income:  1.79%

Percentage of Returns Itemizing Charitable Contributions: 14.67%

Charitable County Index: 45

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Chatham+County,+NC/@35.6958569,-79.371034,11z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89acbc9393c41479:0xda597fa59834ed64!8m2!3d35.7211289!4d-79.17807

(From Smart Asset)

To find the most generous places, we compared two factors in each county: the amount of money people donate as a percentage of their net income, and the proportion of people who made charitable donations.

To determine the amount of money that people donate as a percentage of their income, we first calculated the net income for everyone in each county. To do this, we looked at tax return data and accounted for federal, state and local taxes paid. We also accounted for deductible entries, including mortgage interest, mortgage points and mortgage insurance payments. We then divided each county's total charitable donations by its total net income to see the amount of money residents in each county have donated relative to their income.

Next, we measured the total number of individual tax returns that show charitable contributions and divided that by the total number of individual tax returns in each county. This gave us the proportion of people in each county who make charitable donations.

We then indexed and equally weighted the two factors to yield our Most Charitable Places Index.