Have you ever visited another country and been astounded by how welcoming everyone was? Or perhaps you’re planning your next trip and need some inspiration. Whatever the case may be, here at thortful, we’re all about acts of kindness and wanted to reveal which countries are the most thoughtful in the world.
Whilst it’s a bit tricky to give a precise definition of thoughtfulness, we believe it’s all about kindness. Typically, this might be associated with how we treat other people, but thoughtfulness can also be about the climate, and people’s right to a healthy environment. That’s why we’ve looked into factors like the number of electric cars sold in each country as well as people’s recycling routines.
Here are the five factors included in our index:
- Volunteering score
- Charitable giving score
- Friendliness ranking
- Number of electric cars
- Recycling rate
Which are the most thoughtful countries?
Without further ado, let’s get into the results:
| Rank | Country | Volunteering score | Charitable giving score | Friendliness ranking | No. of electric cars | Recycling rate | Total score |
| 1 | Indonesia | 0.6 | 0.83 | 2 | 658 | 7 | 6.16 |
| 2 | United States | 0.26 | 0.45 | 18 | 644800 | 34.6 | 6.078 |
| 3 | Australia | 0.3 | 0.61 | 20 | 21362 | 42.1 | 5.011 |
| 4 | Germany | 0.15 | 0.34 | 48 | 673600 | 47.83 | 4.714 |
| 5 | Kenya | 0.49 | 0.49 | 11 | 350 | 8 | 4.469 |
| 6 | United Kingdom | 0.22 | 0.59 | 34 | 311500 | 27.25 | 4.435 |
| 7 | Ireland | 0.26 | 0.45 | 12 | 16610 | 33 | 4.396 |
| 8 | India | 0.34 | 0.36 | 19 | 404980 | 5 | 4.323 |
| 9 | Thailand | 0.17 | 0.6 | 8 | 2620 | 19.1 | 4.113 |
| 10 | Netherlands | 0.21 | 0.56 | 29 | 95500 | 24.61 | 3.779 |
Topping our list as the most thoughtful country is Indonesia, with a thoughtfulness score of 6.16 – which shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise given that Indonesians are noted for their friendliness. In fact, they had a worldwide friendliness ranking of 2 and the highest charitable giving score of all the countries in our index (0.83).
In second is the United States (6.078), with the second highest number of electric cars on the road, at 644,800. Next up, Australia scores 5.011 in our index, boasting the second-highest charitable giving score (0.83) and the third-highest recycling rate (42.1).
Not far behind, Germany (4.714) ranks top for the number of electric cars (673,600) and second for recycling rate (47.83). Rounding out our top five, we have Kenya in fifth, with a thoughtfulness score of 4.469. Volunteer work is a strong contributing factor here, with Kenya claiming the second-highest volunteering score (0.49).
As for the UK, they just miss out on a top five spot, ranking in sixth with a score of 4.435. While Brits rank decently for number of electric cars (311,500), recycling rate (27.25), and charitable giving (0.59), it appears there’s room for improvement in regard to volunteering and their overall worldwide friendliness ranking (hey, there’s nothing wrong with some constructive criticism!).
And there you have it; the most thoughtful countries in the world. If reading this has left you in a good mood, why not do your own random act of kindness and brighten up a loved one’s day with one of our send a smile cards. Or if you want to show your appreciation for someone special, we have a whole collection of thank you cards perfect for just that. And for even more happy reads like this one, be sure to check out the rest of the thortful blog.
Methodology
This data shows a ranking of the most thoughtful countries. This was based on 5 key factors.
- Recycling rate is the percentage of municipal waste that each country recycles.
- Number of electric cars is the number of BEV and PHEV cars sold in each country throughout 2021.
- Worldwide friendliness rank is the rank of each country on the expat friendliness ranking. Note that some countries included in the source ranking are not included in this dataset, due to unavailable data for the other factors.
- Volunteering scores and charitable giving scores are taken from the world giving index 2021.
The factors were then indexed and ranked, to provide a value between 0 and 1. These were then summed and multiplied by 2, to give a total score out of 10. The countries were then ranked based on the overall score.
Sources
- https://cms-internationsgmbh.netdna-ssl.com/cdn/file/cms-media/public/2022-07/Expat-Insider-2022.pdf [Friendliness]
- https://www.cafonline.org/about-us/publications/2021-publications/caf-world-giving-index-2021 [Charity, Volunteering]
- https://www.statista.com/outlook/mmo/electric-vehicles/uruguay [EV Cars]
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/1234761/india-electric-vehicle-sales-by-type/ [EV Cars – India]
- https://www.wapcar.my/news/while-malaysia-sold-274-evs-in-2021-indonesia-sold-25x-more-with-hyundai-leading-40082 [EV Cars – Indonesia]
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/1285954/number-of-electric-vehicles-in-africa-by-select-country/ [EV Cars – Kenya]
- https://dialogochino.net/en/climate-energy/44044-latin-americas-nascent-electric-car-market/ [EV Cars – Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Peru]
- https://datacatalog.worldbank.org/search/dataset/0039597 [Recycling]
