Finland - a giving nation?

While trying to find an answer to the question why finnish people "give" less to charity compared to other nordic countries I've learned that there is no simple answer or easily explained reason for it, and that it actually isn't totally true. 

Comparing the results from the years 2010 and 2011 of the World Giving Index score, which is based on three measures of giving behaviour - giving money, volunteering time and helping a stranger, I found out that Finland in 2010 was on the 45th place in the global ranking, but in 2011 Finland enjoyed the greatest increase in the region, moving from 45th place to 21st. Most significant was that "Helping a stranger" grew in one year by ten percentage points. Interesting is that of all the nordic countries Iceland came first, Denmark second and Finland on the third place. while Norway and Sweden came last. So not so bad after all.

Unfortunately the World giving index only can tell how much, but not answer the question why. Some researches claim that the high taxes could be the reason to why Finnish people give less than others, as the taxes are a kind of compulsory charity. Though this wouldn't explain why Denmark got a better score that Finland, considering that they pay even higher taxes.

Apparently Finnish people are also very giving around christmas time and according to a survey made in 2009 one of three Finnish people were going to donate something to charity despite the economic depression. Even the website "This is Finland" says that christmas through time has been the season for giving and that charity, both volunteer work and donating things or money has a high value around christmas time. Maybe Finnish people are not as penny-pinching or selfish as we think!

- Ida