Single women give more to charity on average in every income category compared to unmarried men, reports the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy, Boston College, USA.

Based on the US 2004 Survey of Consumer Finances, the most recent survey of its kind, the research shows that among not-married households (which includes separated, divorced, widowed and never married) in the US, those headed by women on aggregate give more than their male counterparts, despite females earning 30% less than males and owning only 55% of the net worth of their male counterparts.

On average an equal amount is given to charity, in 2003 this amounted to an average of $743 per household, but unmarried female-headed households earned an average of $30,000 in 2003 and owned an average of $167,000 in net worth, while unmarried male households earned an average of $42,000 and owned an average of $305,000 in net worth.

Of the 31m households headed by single women, compared to only 17m households headed by single men, total donations by unmarried females reached $23bn in aggregate as compared with only $12bn for unmarried men.

As the income per household increased, so did the gap in the amount donated Among households earning more than $200,000, unmarried men donated an average of $6,526, compared with $28,171 for unmarried women.

At the lower levels of households (those earning up to $24,999).unmarried men donated an average of $244 to charity compared with $256 for unmarried women in the same bracket.

The Center on Wealth and Philanthropy compares the pattern to wealth, indicating that, “There is little gender difference in the average charitable donations for net worth below $100,000, but as net worth increased, the average donation by households headed by unmarried women increases substantially more than their male counterparts. Households headed by unmarried women with $5m or more in wealth donated an average of $50,298 per household to charity as compared with $13,565 for households headed by unmarried men.”

The Center also notes that there are smaller percentages of affluent and wealthy unmarried women than there are percentages of affluent and wealthy unmarried men.