Greater generosity is linked to a deeper faith in God, according to the latest research from the Christian finance charity Stewardship in its Generosity Report 2025, which explores Christian giving in the U.K.
The study involved online surveys of 6,011 U.K. Christian adults conducted between Sept. 2 and 10, 2024.
The data used in the study was considered representative of religious identification across all four countries of the U.K.—England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland—based on 2021 Census data.
In a foreword, Janie Oliver, chief executive officer of Stewardship, explained that the goal of the latest study, following the previous report in 2024, was to explore the “gap between current and potential levels of generosity in the U.K.”
“It has been so encouraging to see this research already shaping national conversations about how we might better resource God’s work here on Earth,” Oliver wrote.
“For this second report, our core questions remained: how much are Christians giving, and why do they or don’t they give? We scaled up the research, with around 2,000 more Christians completing the survey. We also significantly increased the number of qualitative interviews by using AI technology to conduct 50 in-depth virtual interviews.”
Study methodology and findings
Four groups were identified in the research:
• Committed Christians – Those who attend church and read the Bible at least once per week.
• Practicing Christians – Those who attend church and read the Bible at least once per month.
• Church-going Christians – Those who attend church at least once per month but read the Bible independently less than once per month.
• Cultural Christians – Those who identify as Christian but attend church less than once per month.
The report also highlights three categories of analysis: Active faith, Giving habits, and Influences on giving.
Key findings in these categories provide insight into Christian giving trends. In the Active faith section, the research shows that greater generosity is linked to a deeper practice of the Christian faith, with Committed Christians reporting the greatest joy from being generous.
The Giving habits section reveals that while donors limit research into causes, their giving habits align with their Christian beliefs. Most Christian donors provide ongoing support to two causes but may also give in other, unspecified ways. The research also indicates that a charity’s faith affiliation is not necessarily a deciding factor for Christian donors.
The Influences on giving section notes generosity across various denominations, but deeper Christian practice and discussions on generosity tend to increase giving. The research also found that local churches receive the most support from Christian donors.
Financial contributions and trends
The report reveals that Christians in the U.K. give an average of £124 ($155) per month, which equals 5.3% of their income (after tax) and is 2% higher than in Stewardship’s last report that found the average to be £73 per month or 3.2% of their income. This breaks down to an average of £98 per month donated to Christian causes and £26 to secular causes.
Committed Christians give an average of £314 per month, equating to 11.2% of their income—9% to Christian causes and 2.2% to secular causes.
“The 2024 report showed a consistent pattern of those maintaining higher church attendance and regular Bible reading being more generous in their financial giving,” the report states.
“This year, we wanted to understand if regular church attendance and Bible reading caused greater generosity, or if it was simply a correlation. As the Committed Christian group was added for further granularity, the trend has become yet more striking and thus strongly suggests that the level of Christian practice does cause increased giving.”
Committed Christians, as defined in the report, read the Bible at least once per week and consistently give, with 61% donating to Christian causes and 44% to secular causes.
“When compared to Practicing Christians, who read their Bible at the lower rate of ‘at least monthly,’ these numbers drop to 46% and 39% respectively,” the report states. “Additionally, the average percentage of post-tax income given away is 11.2% among Committed Christians, compared to 8% for Practicing Christians.
“This demonstrates a strong relationship between Christian practice and financial generosity.”
Factors contributing to increased giving
Several factors contributed to the increase in giving since the previous report.
One factor was the timing of the research. The latest report surveyed participants in September 2024, whereas the previous research was conducted in November 2023.
“Approaching Christmas, November is a time of year when people often feel financial strain, and therefore may have been giving away less of their money than usual. Another factor is that the sample size has increased by 2,000 Christians. Additionally, this year we have further segmented the Practicing Christian group to include a new category we are referring to as ‘Committed Christians’—those who attend church and read their Bible at least once a week.”
This new Committed Christian category is the most generous group, comprising 21% of survey respondents.
The larger sample size in the latest research also means donation sizes were higher compared to the previous report in 2024, “meaning there was a greater spread of generosity levels across all Christian practices, while the overall patterns remained consistent.”
Other important factors for donors include seeing the impact of their giving, affordability challenges, and the fact that Christian workers now receive the largest monthly donations—currently averaging £73.11, compared to £40 in the previous report.
