Table 4 Random effects meta-analysis of helping proportions by demographic category.

From: Demographic variation in charitable giving and helping across 22 countries in the Global Flourishing Study

Variable

Category

Proportion

95% CI of proportion

SE analogue (CI Width/4)

Prediction interval

LL

UL

τ

I^2

Global p-value

Age group

< 0.001**

 

18–24

0.60

(0.53, 0.66)

0.03

0.19

0.75

0.16

94.9

 

25–29

0.59

(0.52, 0.67)

0.04

0.13

0.84

0.18

95.8

30–39

0.59

(0.52, 0.67)

0.04

0.14

0.84

0.18

95.6

40–49

0.58

(0.50, 0.65)

0.04

0.13

0.83

0.18

95.6

50–59

0.57

(0.48, 0.66)

0.04

0.11

0.88

0.21

96.7

60–69

0.51

(0.43, 0.60)

0.04

0.10

0.85

0.20

96.4

70–79

0.45

(0.37, 0.54)

0.04

0.10

0.83

0.20

96.4

80 or older

0.48

(0.29, 0.67)

0.09

0.09

1.00

0.47

99.3

Gender

< 0.001**

 

Male

0.58

(0.50, 0.65)

0.04

0.12

0.84

0.18

95.9

 

Female

0.54

(0.46, 0.61)

0.04

0.12

0.80

0.18

95.6

Other

0.56

(0.18, 0.88)

0.17

0.00

1.00

0.92

99.8

Marital status

< 0.001**

 

Married

0.55

(0.47, 0.63)

0.04

0.11

0.84

0.19

96.2

 

Separated

0.57

(0.48, 0.65)

0.04

0.16

0.83

0.21

96.8

Divorced

0.56

(0.48, 0.64)

0.04

0.13

0.80

0.19

96.1

Widowed

0.49

(0.41, 0.57)

0.04

0.12

0.84

0.19

96.1

Domestic partner

0.54

(0.47, 0.61)

0.04

0.18

0.70

0.16

94.7

Single, never married

0.57

(0.50, 0.64)

0.04

0.13

0.79

0.17

95.1

Employment status

< 0.001**

 

Employed for an employer

0.59

(0.51, 0.67)

0.04

0.13

0.85

0.18

95.9

 

Self-employed

0.63

(0.55, 0.70)

0.04

0.16

0.84

0.17

95.7

Retired

0.48

(0.40, 0.57)

0.04

0.08

0.87

0.21

96.7

Student

0.58

(0.51, 0.65)

0.04

0.16

0.73

0.16

95.0

Homemaker

0.51

(0.43, 0.59)

0.04

0.10

0.80

0.19

95.9

Unemployed and looking for a job

0.55

(0.46, 0.63)

0.04

0.09

0.78

0.20

96.4

None of these/other

0.52

(0.45, 0.60)

0.04

0.10

0.78

0.18

95.8

Education

< 0.001**

 

Up to 8 years

0.51

(0.43, 0.60)

0.04

0.13

0.82

0.20

96.3

 

9–15 years

0.56

(0.47, 0.63)

0.04

0.10

0.82

0.19

96.0

16 + years

0.62

(0.55, 0.70)

0.04

0.18

0.90

0.17

95.8

Religious service attendance

< 0.001**

 

> 1/week

0.64

(0.57, 0.71)

0.03

0.26

0.88

0.16

95.1

 

1/week

0.60

(0.53, 0.67)

0.03

0.19

0.80

0.16

95.0

1–3/month

0.60

(0.53, 0.67)

0.04

0.23

0.81

0.16

95.1

A few times a year

0.57

(0.49, 0.64)

0.04

0.16

0.81

0.17

95.0

Never

0.51

(0.44, 0.59)

0.04

0.10

0.81

0.18

95.5

Immigration status

< 0.001**

 

Born in this country

0.56

(0.48, 0.63)

0.04

0.12

0.82

0.18

95.8

 

Born in another country

0.59

(0.51, 0.65)

0.04

0.23

0.90

0.17

95.1

  1. Note: *p < .05; **p < .007 (Bonferroni corrected threshold).
  2. Proportion: Estimated overall proportion in the category.
  3. 95% CI of Proportion: The 95% CI for the estimated overall proportion of people who reported helping for each demographic category.
  4. SE Analogue (CI Width/4): Standard error for the estimated overall proportion for each demographic group.
  5. Prediction interval: Reflects how the country-specific proportion vary. LL: Lower limit of the 95% prediction interval. UP: Upper limit of the 95% prediction interval.
  6. τ (tau; heterogeneity): Measures the standard deviation of the distribution of proportions across countries. It is an estimate of how much the proportion in that demographic category varies across countries.
  7. I^2: Estimates how much of the variability in proportions is due to heterogeneity across countries versus sampling variability. Given that the sample sizes of this study are large, the I^2 is high.
  8. Global p-value: Tests the null hypothesis that the demographic category does not matter in any of the 22 countries.
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