These are the 10 most generous counties in SC, according to a new report. Do you live in one?

Can you spare some change?

Generosity abounds across South Carolina, but there are 10 counties that rise above the rest, according to the fourth annual charity report by SmartAsset, a financial technology company.

The report shows that Beaufort County is the most generous county in the state, while Union County was the least generous.

To determine the most generous counties, the study compared two factors — the amount of money people donate as a percentage of their net income and the proportion of people who made charitable donations.

SmartAsset looked at tax return data and accounted for federal, state and local taxes paid to determine the amount of money that people in each county donate as a percentage of their income. The study also accounted for deductible entries, including mortgage interest and mortgage payments.

Each county’s total charitable donations were divided by their total net income to see the amount of money residents have donated relative to their income.

The study also measured the total number of individual tax returns that show charitable contributions and divided that by the total amount of tax returns in each county.

Here are the 10 most charitable counties in South Carolina, based on contributions as percentage of income and percentage of returns itemizing charitable contributions.

1. Beaufort: Income: 2.05% | Itemized contributions: 13.33%
2. Charleston: Income: 1.96% | Itemized contributions: 12.70%
3. York: Income: 1.61% | Itemized contributions: 10.12%
4. Richland: Income: 2.01% | Itemized contributions: 9.07%
5. Calhoun: Income: 3.38% | Itemized contributions: 5.4%
6. Greenville: Income: 1.96% | Itemized contributions: 9.03%
7. Georgetown: Income: 1.71% | Itemized contributions: 9.53%
8. Lancaster: Income: 1.31% | Itemized contributions: 9.28%
9. Lexington: Income: 1.67% | Itemized contributions: 7.58%
10. Edgefield: Income: 1.94% | Itemized contributions: 6.75%

This story was originally published August 24, 2022 at 5:00 AM.

Patrick McCreless

The State

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Patrick McCreless is the Southeast service journalism editor for McClatchy, who leads and edits a team of six reporters in South Carolina, Georgia and Mississippi. The team writes about trending news of the day and topics that help readers in their daily lives and better informs them about their communities. He attended Jacksonville State University in Alabama and grew up in Tuscaloosa, AL.