The 1997 IRS data contains three elements concerning the giving habits of those taxpayers who itemize their charitable deductions: the percentage of taxpayers itemizing charitable deductions, the amount of charitable deduction itemized (Average Itemized Charitable Deduction or AICD), and the percentage of donor itemized charitable deduction as related to their income (the AICD divided by the Average Adjusted Gross Income, or AAGI).

Each of these elements is ranked compared to the other towns and zip codes in Connecticut.

Listed by all of Connecticut’s 169 towns and 380 zip codes, this information separates data on itemizers’ returns from that of all taxpayers, allowing readers to make direct comparisons of giving to income between themselves and itemizers in their communities.

All data here is as the IRS provided it, and may not reflect the same figures as those provided by United States Census data. In some instances, the IRS has withheld data of some zip codes that have low numbers of taxpayers reporting charitable deductions, to protect the privacy of individual taxpayers. In a few cases, a zip code is shared by more than one town.

AAGI: the average adjusted gross income of all taxpayers for a particular town. In Connecticut, the AAGI of itemizers is approximately twice that of all taxpayers and five times that of taxpayers who do not submit itemized returns.

AAGI of itemizers: the average adjusted gross income of taxpayers who itemized charitable contributions on their 1997 tax returns.

Percent of itemized returns: the percentage of taxpayers who itemize their charitable deductions. Nationwide, these individuals represent less than 30 percent of all taxpayers, but their charitable deductions amount to approximately 80 percent of the total estimated charitable contributions in the United States (AFRC Trust for Philanthropy).

Itemized returns rank: a ranking of the percentage of itemized returns by town.

Average itemized charitable deduction (AICD): the average total of itemized charitable deductions for a particular zip code or town.

Average itemized charitable deduction rank: a ranking by town of average itemized charitable deductions.

Percentage of AICD to income (AAGI): the average charitable itemizers’ contribution (the donor) divided by the average adjusted gross income of the donors. 

Percentage of AICD to income rank: a town-by-town ranking of the percentage of AICD to income.

Zip Code: United States Postal Service (USPS) Zip Code, as provided in the IRS data set.

Town: municipality name associated by the USPS with one or more zip codes; this has been cross-checked with the Connecticut State Blue Book and the USPS. Zip codes can be looked up on the USPS website.