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By Alex Daniels

As the recession lifted, poor and middle class ¾«¶«Ó°Òµns dug deeper into their wallets to give to charity, even though they were earning less. At the same time, according to a newÌýChronicleÌýanalysis of tax data, wealthy ¾«¶«Ó°Òµns earned more, but the portion of the income they gave to charity declined.

Using the IRS data,ÌýThe ChronicleÌýwas able to track gifts to charity at theÌýstate, county, metropolitan-area, and ZIP code levels. The data were for gifts to charity among taxpayers who itemize deductions on their tax forms. It captured $180-billion that was given to charity in 2012, or about 80 percent of the total amount given to charity as tabulated by “Giving USA.”

°Õ³ó±ðÌýChronicleÌýstudy found that ¾«¶«Ó°Òµns give, on average, about 3 percent of their income to charity, a figure that has not budged significantly for decades. However, that figure belies big differences in giving patterns between the rich and the poor.