How generous are you and your fellow country-persons?  Australia and New Zealand shared first place, and the United States tied for fifth, in a first-of-its kind survey ranking 153 nations on the willingness of their citizens to donate time and money to charity.

China ranked near the bottom, barely higher than last-place Madagascar.

The report, released Wednesday by the British-based Charities Aid Foundation, showed striking variations in charitable behavior around the world.

For example, it found that only 4 percent of Lithuanians gave money to charity, compared with 83 percent of people in Malta; 61 percent of people in Turkmenistan did volunteer work, compared with 2 percent of Cambodians.

The overall rankings were a composite of three categories — the percentage of people who donated money, donated time and helped a stranger in the month prior to being surveyed.  Europeans Denmark and Germany rank quite low, which was surprising for me.