Disaster Relief by the Numbers
The earthquake in Haiti may be one of the world’s most tragic disasters, but the rapid response and financial munificence across the globe has shown us the best of humanity. Still, looking closely at the numbers reveals some unexpected trends.
For example, while the United States has been the world’s most generous donor with over $466 million in aid, it only ranks eighth when broken down per capita. In reality, the Scandinavian countries, as well as Canada, have been the most generous in their giving. We’ve also gathered data on corporate giving, and to understand just how generous each company is, we’ve ranked them based on what percentage of their annual revenue they are donating — most of which are less than 0.002%. As for celebrities, Leonardo DiCaprio gave the most of his net worth, $1 million (or 2.3%), while Tiger Woods, probably looking to save some face, donated the most of any celebrity with $3 million.
Ways You Can Help
- Donate to the American Red Cross online or text HAITI to 90999 to make a $10 donation
- Give to UNICEF and Doctors Without Borders
- Check out this list of other non-governmental organizations to support
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
I always knew there was a reason I liked Leonardo DiCaprio so much, even in spite of his horrible Boston accent in The Departed.
Italy! Italy! Breaking the top 25 and Leo in #1. And Jersey Shore the biggest MTV show of all time. We’re taking over.
I think we have to keep in mind the fact that some of the Scandanavian countries are much richer per capita than the US and the fact that because they are socialist, their wealth is distributed much more evenly. I think a lot of Americans gave money even though times are hard here, too.
why you dont count the help from México?????
México helped haiti a lot more than some of the countries there in your infografic.
i feel bad that you don care about all the countries who helped.
you should investigate before publishing info.
fer, what did Mexico give?
I make about $35K a year and donated $240 to the American Red Cross, .6% of what I make a year….Clearly I need to be more generous…
The United States donated approximately 45% of all the money raised to date. Not to mention the fact that the majority of the corporations and private citizen who have donated are also American. Who cares about the ratio of GDP to donations.
Why is Tunisia called Guyana?
Unfortunately, this only reflects the response to highly publicized relief efforts. A more telling picture is the one about the regular tragedies that don’t make celebrity telethons and devastate families and individuals every bit as much.
I’ve been a long-time volunteer for the Red Cross. And knowing what I know from experience, when the Haiti disaster hit I gave extra to the general fund. Situations like this with funding allocated to specific disasters result in $5,000 per disaster victim in one publicized event versus mere pennies for the victims of a less publicized event. And donors often get pissed if, say, their Haiti donation goes to that other cause.
beck that is the most stupid, policially ignorant statement I have ever heard.
New Zealand Government only pledged One Million, the people then donated money on top of that. Not that it’s a pissing contest.
wow so giving so much money to a pice of crap country that no one should give a shit about. DOES anyone realize what could have happened with that much money besides giving it to gorillas that just waste it and keep taking it from us. with the total money so far from donations to the gorilla country could have made 2 new traveling wave reactors and of set 32 coal power plants? NO instead were giving our money away to a shitty ass country that is still going to be a piece of shit country for the rest of there life. until they figure out how to help them self’s we should not help those animals.
what a retarded info picture.. can’t even see it
Dude, learn geography, Guyana is in South America, not Africa.
Haiti had so many deaths because of the many multiple story buildings that the US helped build for them, in addition to the 1000 miles of roads we built in the early part of this century, for free. Unless they have the means to maintain what we build them, any aid or infrastructure will possibly cause many more deaths in future earthquakes.
They are already getting more proportionally than any country under the WW2 Marshall Plan, yet I highly doubt they will use the aid to become a 1st world nation again, as Germany did quickly after WW2.
Also, this “aid” is being stolen from us without consent, though we are already bankrupted as a nation. It’s merely being borrowed from China or whoever, then our children will have to pay it at some point.
ok had to blow that up.. now i see.
The U.S. may have given the most but per capita.. no surprise there.. norway followed by canada.. thats just usually the way it is.
T:A: you’re right, guyana is in south america beside brazil. They are the ones who donated first and did donate that 1 million, which is condsiderable since they are the #2 poorest nation in the western hemisphere besides haiti. They just labelled it wrong.
you forgot Israel!
they had a large delegation and were first hospital on scene
Your relief data is not correct.
China did not donate 10 million dollars, Taiwan did. And, if you want to argue that Taiwan is part of China, then why isn’t Taiwan highlighted in the map? It’s funny where you guys are getting your sources.
Source: http://www.europeanbusiness.gr/page.asp?pid=707
A FYI: Estonia is in fact NORTH of Latvia not on top of it.
Doug, since everything you said was so insanely wrong, I really don’t know where to begin. The U.S. spent the last century bleeding Haiti dry , occupying it with Marines for a long stretch, overthrowing legitimate leaders, and taking a huge portiion of their GDP from them, just as the French did before us. Any building done there was for American corporate interests, and the death toll was so high because they couldn’t afford the high cost of earthquake-proof building. They won’t “return to 1st world status” through aid as they have been kept poor by colonial powers almost from their inception.
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So shaming people, organizations, and countries will make them give more? How’s that working out for you?
Jacques, who’s shaming anyone? This seems more like recognition than shaming–i wouldn’t have known who gave anything without stuff like this.
You also forgot Iceland. We donated some money, don’t know how much – our rescue team was also the first one to arrive along with supplies.
why the f*** did you mark latvia with estonia? get your geography straight. americans….
how do you not have Israel on this list? in addition to donations they have been a leader there as far as setting up hospitals and giving people medical help.
One country not represented on the map is Turkey. On January 16, I traveled overland into Haiti from Dominican Republic. At a roadside restaurant along the way, we ran into two men from Turkey, sent by a Turkish NGO focusing on search and rescue. They were on their way to Port-au-Prince to lend their expertise to the effort.
I don’t understand why this looks like a competition of ‘who gave most’ Besides that, your data is completely incorrect, for example, in your graph the Netherlands are listed giving $ 5 million which is actually $ 117 million. I saw many more inaccuracies so this graph looks pretty but actually is clearly made by some American with a typical American world view.