OECD Survey on Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions 2026 Results

Amidst economic, sociodemographic and technological transformations – and limited fiscal space – democratic governments face challenges in meeting people’s rising expectations and needs. A healthy amount of trust in public institutions is critical to implement reforms to meet those expectations and needs, making trust a policy objective in itself.

This report presents the results of the third wave of the OECD Survey on Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions (OECD Trust Survey), a cross-national survey assessing people’s trust in government and the factors that drive trust: namely, perceptions of the reliability, responsiveness, integrity, openness and fairness of public institutions. It covers 33 OECD and five OECD accession candidate countries.

Across the OECD, fewer people report high or moderately high trust in the national government (40%) than low or no trust (43%). After a slight decline between 2021 and 2023, trust has stabilised on average, and slightly improved in about half of the countries where it previously declined. The civil service, local government, police and courts continue to elicit higher trust levels than the national government.

Trust in national government continues to vary significantly between those who feel the political system gives people like them a voice and those who do not – a stable gap of 47 percentage points. Other trust gaps across demographic and socioeconomic groups are smaller. Trust continues to decline among people with the lowest levels of formal education, while the trust gap between younger and older adults has decreased significantly and that between women and men has remained broadly stable.

People’s perceptions of their day-to-day interactions with public institutions, including public services such as health, education and administrative services, remain positive on average, showing even a slightly upward trend. These positive perceptions, which help maintain trust levels, remain higher than those of government decision making on complex and long-term issues which remain low and contribute to low average trust levels.

Across the OECD, positive assessments of complex decision making – such as finding it likely that decisions are based on the best available evidence, open to people’s and stakeholders’ inputs, and balance the interests of current and future generations – are strongly associated with trust in the national government. They also influence trust in the national legislature, along with views on how legislatures fulfil their core functions (such as oversight of the national government and balancing regional and groups interests).

Encouragingly, perceptions of the responsiveness of policymakers to the public’s views, and of the integrity of individual politicians and the government, have slightly improved compared to 2023. Yet survey results underline the continued need for renewed democratic governance: while two-thirds (68%) of respondents say voting influences government’s actions, a reassuring result for democracies, fewer than one-third (31%) find it likely that the political system lets people like them have a say. Given this is a key driver of trust, it shows growing and unmet citizens’ expectations about having a say in decision making beyond elections. Only 39% of people report that participating in a public consultation influences what government does.

Positive perceptions of day-to-day interactions are mainly associated with higher trust in local government and the national civil service. Satisfaction with administrative services is high, with 68% of people who engaged with such services in the past year satisfied with them – a share that has risen over time. Improved satisfaction rates may be related to a modestly increasing share of people who view services as responsive to complaints and innovative ideas.

Measuring expectations and perceptions of Governments’ use of artificial intelligence (AI) is critical for the future of trust and the capacity of government to modernise. Just over four in ten people believe their government’s AI use could lead to tailored services or reduced costs. People have less confidence about the use of AI and the upholding of important public sector principles such as fairness, privacy and transparency, or about maintaining human oversight.

Cultural, economic, institutional and political factors influence differences in trust across countries and over time. Fluctuating trust is an indication of evolving expectations compared to institutional performance and, in democracies, allows the system to continuously improve. While country-specific results point to additional priorities, findings from the 2025 Trust Survey suggest common areas where governments across and beyond the OECD could strengthen trust through policy measures:

• Focus on high-impact drivers with the greatest room to improve trust in specific institutions. Improving day-to-day service delivery will have more impact on trust in the civil service and local government) while improving perceptions about long-term policymaking will have more impact on trust in the national government and the legislatures.

• Recognise that some perceptions of the capacity of governments to make the right decisions on long term and complex policy challenges can shift quickly. In countries with sizeable changes in trust in the national government in the past two years, citizens’ perceptions of the competence and fairness of decision making on complex matters have been the key variable. Continuing to invest in public services will help maintain trust levels but investments in both the how (engagement of people and stakeholders, transparency, evidence based, communication) and the what (fairness) of decisions on complex policy areas will be help increase trust levels in national government and the legislature.

• Embrace the use of new technologies in government with care to ensure public sector principles and attention to communication. While the level of confidence of government use of personal data is relatively high, with 52% finding it likely that their personal data will be used only for legitimate purposes, investments in communicating on the value added of the use of AI in government and addressing concerns about the risks will have to be made.

• Invest in renewed democratic governance. The drivers of trust for national governments and legislatures show growing public expectations for transparency, accountability, and fairness in policy making. Most importantly, there is a sizeable and persistently large group of people who do not feel they are being heard. The institutionalisation of engagement mechanisms beyond traditional representative processes in many countries should help in this regard, but investments are necessary to ensure these mechanisms are efficient and effective in driving meaningful results on policy decisions.