Blaxland is one of the most generous suburbs in the country when it comes to charitable giving as a share of income, according to data released last month from the National Australia Bank.
While people in affluent suburbs like Mosman in Sydney and Middle Park in Melbourne made the biggest average donations in dollar terms, it's a different story when suburbs are ranked by charitable giving as a share of income.
By this measure, NAB said the Victorian town of Castlemaine was the most generous postcode in the country, with 0.36 per cent of average taxable income of $42,650 being donated.
Blaxland was next in line with 0.35 per cent of average income given to charity. Households in Melbourne's Fitzroy North donated an average of 0.33 per cent of their incomes, NAB said, followed by Brunswick East, O'Connor in Canberra, and Sturt in South Australia, where the proportion was 0.32 per cent.
Australians appeared to dig deeper for others in the past year, with solid jobs growth and a resilient economy contributing to a significant jump in charitable donations. The National Australia Bank, which releases the data every year, said Australia's charitable giving has jumped 6.5 per cent. The average donation size grew by $12 to $348, the bank said.
When measured in raw dollars, Melbourne's Middle Park had the highest average donation amount of $327 a person, followed by Mosman, with an average amount of $295 a person. Hunters Hill in Sydney was next, with $279, and Toorak in Melbourne was fourth, with $267 a person.
NAB said its charitable giving index, based on customer transaction data, jumped to 6.5 per cent growth in the year to February, more than twice the pace of 2.4 per cent growth a year earlier.
NAB chief economist Alan Oster explained the strong growth by highlighting that household spending had been a bright spot within the economy in recent months, alongside solid growth in employment.
The bank also has an index that measures consumer anxiety, and this has shown households are less anxious than the long-term average in all states except Western Australia.
"With overall anxiety levels easing, consumers appear to have responded positively in their charitable spending behaviours with fewer consumers cutting back on their charitable spending this past year," Mr Oster said.
The data on charitable donations is based on the bank's electronic transaction records, and also measures charitable giving by state and postcode.
NAB declined to provide figures on which suburbs donated the lowest proportion of their incomes to charity.
Growth in charitable giving was strongest among people over 65, with 12 per cent growth, NAB said. The only age group where giving declined was among younger Australians aged 15-24. Younger people tended to earn less than older people and had higher rates of unemployment and job uncertainty, it said.
"Unemployment rates in this age group have remained elevated over the past year and significantly above the Australian average," the report said.
