New Survey of Canadian Youth Finds They Spend Higher Proportion of their Budget on Foreign Aid than Canadian Government Does

Toronto, ON - A new Ipsos Reid poll of Canadian youth aged 14 to 18 conducted on behalf of World Vision Canada reveals that Canadian youth spend about 5% of their money on donations to charitable organizations that work outside of Canada. More specifically, when asked how they typically spend $100 of their money, Canadian youth say they spend on average $4.70 on donations to charities involved in foreign aid and development efforts. Interestingly, youth in Ontario claim to spend, on average, the most (nearly 6%) of their budget on these activities.

When compared to the budget of the Federal Government of Canada, Canadian youth appear to be spending a higher proportion of their budget on foreign aid than the government does. In fact, youth say that they are spending approximately 5% of their money on foreign aid and development, while World Vision reports that the Canadian government spends approximately 2% of its budget this way.

Moreover, when asked how much money they think they could or should spend on donations to foreign aid, Canadian youth on average said that they could spend a little more -- about 7% of their overall budget. Similarly, youth in Ontario think they should be spending the most at nearly 8% of their overall budget.

Thinking about the most pressing global issues on which world leaders should be focused, one in five Canadian youth (17%) believe that the gap between the rich and the poor is the most pressing global issue world leaders should be focused on, and another 17% believe the issue of most concern is world peace. These two issues are tied for second, trailing the environment (40%).

• Three in ten (30%) living in Quebec say that global peace is the most important issue, while two in ten (18%) say the title belongs to the gap between the rich and the poor.
• One in three (33%) Quebec youth believe that the environment is the most pressing issue that world leaders should be addressing.

Thinking about the actions they have taken in the past year to help fight poverty worldwide, over four in ten (44%) Canadian youth have done volunteer work. Following that, they have donated money to a charity or a cause (28%), taken part in group fundraising (26%), campaigned or signed a petition (18%), organized an event (11%), or attended a workshop or leadership conference (9%). Only three in ten youth (32%) have not done any of the above.

• Regionally speaking, two in three (64%) youngsters in Quebec have done something over the past year to involve themselves in global issues.
• The youth of Ontario (55%) are most likely to have volunteered their time to an international aid cause, followed by Saskatchewan and Manitoba (48%), Alberta (43%), Atlantic Canada (41%), British Columbia (40%), and Quebec (29%). As well, young men (38%) are more likely to have done nothing than young women (25%).

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted on behalf of World Vision Canada from 02/15 to 02/21, 2008. This online survey of 1000 Canadian youth aged 14 to 18 was conducted via the Ipsos I-Say Online Panel, Ipsos Reid's national online panel. The results are based on a sample where quota sampling and weighting are employed to balance demographics and ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to Census data. Quota samples with weighting from the Ipsos online panel provide results that are intended to approximate a probability sample. An unweighted probability sample of this size, with a 100% response rate, would have an estimated margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

For more information on this news release, please contact:
Sean Simpson
Research Manager
Ipsos Reid
Public Affairs
(416) 572-4474
[email protected]

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