This is Scientific American 60 Second Science.

I'm Cynthia Graber.

Got a minute?

America's slowly crawling out of the Great Recession.

On average, we're earning more.

Researchers wondered how the increased income affected charitable giving.

So they dove into IRS data from 2006 and 2012.

They broke the data down by State, County, Metropolitan Area and Zip Code.

The results, $180 billion philanthropic dollars in 2012, covered about 80% of individual

donations to charity.

The investigators found that even though wealthier Americans, defined as those making more than $200,000 a year, were making more in 2012 than they did in 2006,

they actually decreased their donations by an average of almost 5%.

Middle and lower income Americans, defined as people making less than $100,000 a year,

increase their charitable giving by almost the same nearly 5%. This increase came

despite the fact that the group was earning less on average than they had in 2006.

The findings are in the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Even though the wealthiest Americans have decreased their donations by percentage

they still gave more than four and a half billion dollars more in 2012

than they did in 2006. That's because the wealthiest Americans captured nearly all of the recession recovery.

They're doing more than a trillion dollars better than they did six years earlier in a rare

case of a rising tide lifting only some boats.

Thanks for the minute for Scientific American. of a rising tide lifting only some boats.

Thanks for the minute.

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