8th July, 2006

Toowoomba in Queensland is the most generous postcode in Australia, according to a survey of World Vision’s child sponsors and supporters.

Analysis of the one million people on the organisation’s database shows that Toowoomba had the highest number of supporters and child sponsors of any postcode in Australia.

Other postcodes in the top 10 for child sponsors include Gosford, Spit Junction, Baulkham Hills and Randwick in New South Wales, Glen Waverley, Frankston and the Geelong suburb of Belmont in Victoria, and Kenmore and Cairns in Queensland.

The top 10 postcodes for the organisation’s supporters, on the other hand, are mostly found in New South Wales. Toowoomba again topped the list and the Victorian postcodes of Glen Waverley, Frankston and Belmont are all included, But all of the remaining six postcodes - Gosford, Sydney, Baulkham Hills, Liverpool, Campbelltown and Wentworthville - are in New South Wales.

Overall, Victoria was the most generous state, giving an average of $18.40 per person compared to $13 in New South Wales and $10.25 in Western Australia.

It also found that women give more than men - about 65 per cent of women sponsor a child or donate money compared with 35 per cent of men, that people aged between 35 and 45 years are the most generous, and that lower wage earners are more generous than high earners.

- www.worldvision.org.au

- DAVID ADAMS