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LONDON, United Kingdom — In the run up to the holiday season, there was a piece of news that will have eased any guilt felt by Americans about the festival of gluttony they were embarking on: When it comes to charitable giving, the United States is unrivalled by any other nation.

According to the Charities Aid Foundation, which put the United States at the top of its World Giving Index 2011, 65 percent of Americans gave money over the course of the past 12 months. The statistic helped raise the country from its fifth-placed ranking the previous year.