A new report has given Canadians the bronze medal when it comes to giving their time and money to an organization, or helping out a stranger.

The first-ever World Giving Index, published by the U.K.'s Charities Aid Foundation, used these three criteria to determine which countries give the most.

It says the most giving countries in the world are Australia and New Zealand, which shared the top spot in the index ranking.

Those two leading countries are followed by Canada and Ireland, which ranked together in a tie for third-place.

The index draws its conclusions from data gathered as part of Gallup's WorldView World Poll, an ongoing research project that has surveyed participants in 153 countries.

Based on sample surveys of people living in urban areas across the world, the index claims to have analyzed data representing the actions of 95 per cent of the world's population.

Rounding out the top-10 in the World Giving Index were: Switzerland and the United States in a tie for fifth-place, the Netherlands in the seventh position, the United Kingdom and Sri Lanka, which shared a tie for eighth, and Austria in the 10th spot.

A report that accompanies the index also provided regional data across individual continents.

In North America, there were subtle differences between American and Canadian citizens in terms of giving in the month prior to when they were surveyed by pollsters.

Sixty-four per cent of Canadians surveyed said they had given money to an organization -- a charity, church, political or community organization -- in the past month, while only 60 per cent of Americans did. However, more Americans had volunteered their time (39 per cent) as compared to Canadians (35 per cent).

Sixty-eight per cent of Canadians said they helped out a stranger, a slightly higher rate than the 65 per cent of Americans who helped someone they didn't know in the past month.