Contemporary observation

Helping a stranger, donating, volunteering: more frequent than before Covid, slightly down in 2024

**Illustrative image** Miami, May 2015: volunteers from AARP, an American association of retired people, prepare food parcels for older people in need. An image of volunteering, not of the 2024 figures. — Photo: Whoisjohngalt, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

undetermined · Observation ≠ proven fulfilment

2024 · Monde (environ 140 pays, Gallup World Poll)

See the full entry: sources, objections, answers

What is reported

The World Happiness Report 2025 (20 March 2025), based on the Gallup World Poll, finds that in 2024, 70.0% of adults performed at least one act of kindness in the month: helping a stranger (58.8%), donating to a cause (31.7%) or volunteering (22.9%). These three acts remain more than 10% above their 2017-2019 level, and helping a stranger remains 18% higher on the world average, in every region. But they fell significantly between 2023 and 2024 (73.1% → 70.0% for at least one act; 61.4% → 58.8% for helping a stranger). Lost-wallet experiments show return rates far higher than people expect.

Main objection (in French for now)

Over the period 2017-2024, the broadest worldwide measure of kindness goes in the opposite direction from a cooling: helping a stranger is 18% more frequent than before Covid.

The text (World English Bible)

Because iniquity will be multiplied, the love of many will grow cold.
Matt 24:12

Sources

World Happiness Report 2025 — Chapter 2: Caring and sharing: global analysis of happiness and kindness — Wellbeing Research Centre (Université d'Oxford), Gallup, UN SDSN
Tracking the World's Emotional Health — Gallup