The Oklahoma City area is the seventh most charitable major metropolitan area in the country, according to a new report.
That ranking comes as a part of How America Gives, a breakdown of levels of giving across the country. The Chronicle of Philanthropy released the report last month.
The report ranks the 50 most populous American metropolitan areas in terms of the median percent of their annual income residents donate to charity. According to the ranking, residents in the Oklahoma City area donate 5.5 percent of their income to charity.
The Salt Lake City area topped the list. Residents there donate 9 percent of their income to charities. That total includes donations to religious institutions like churches, mosques and synagogues. Salt Lake City is the home of the world headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The study is based on comprehensive tax returns for 2008 the publication obtained from the IRS. The study includes only those taxpayers who reported annual incomes of $50,000 or more. It looks only at individual donations, and doesn't account for corporate giving.
The Oklahoma City area gave more than any other metropolitan area in the state in terms of raw dollars, with $640.1 million donated. But the Oklahoma City area fell slightly behind the Tulsa area in terms of percentage of income donated. Residents in the Tulsa area donated 5.9 percent of their income to charity, a total of $592.4 million.
Residents in the Fort Smith, Ark., area, which includes Le Flore and Sequoyah counties in Oklahoma, gave 6.1 percent of their income to nonprofit groups. That area gave a total of $78.9 million.
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