One in ten Britons think we should be more philanthropic as a nation and give 5-10% of our total income to charity each year.

This is one of the findings in a survey of 2002 British adults published by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) on April 22.

The survey, conducted by YouGov, also found that almost one-third of Britons think that we should give 2% or more of our income to charity each year. Two per cent for someone on the national average salary would mean donating £498.16.

Giving 5-10% of yearly income would mean somebody earning the national average salary of £24,908 donating up to £2490 every year.

The survey results contrast the amount people think they should give to what most of us actually do give. In the past year 74% of those surveyed gave between zero and £100, while only 1% gave more than £1,000 to charity.

Forty two percent of people surveyed think we should give less than 2% of income to charity, with 7% saying we shouldn’t give anything at all.