Citizen satisfaction with public services and institutions

In an environment of fiscal restraint, public service organisations depend more and more on feedback from their clients to make effective and sound decisions about their services. In most OECD countries, public sector organisations, departments and agencies regularly monitor user and citizen satisfaction with public services to evaluate the impact of reforms and identify areas calling for further actions. Comparisons of citizen satisfaction with public services are currently limited by the absence of standardization of survey instruments and methodologies both at the national level (between ministries and agencies of a same country) and across countries.

Data regularly collected through the Gallup World Poll allows some comparative analysis of the satisfaction level of citizens with a range of public services, notably in the areas of health, education and justice, across OECD and partner countries. The interpretation of cross country comparisons of citizen satisfaction with services should be made with caution as perceptions can be influenced by many other factors beyond the access and quality of services such as cultural factors, media campaigns or other factors.

In 2016, on average, 70% of citizens in OECD countries reported being satisfied with the availability of quality health care in the city or area where they live. This is comparable to the percentage of satisfied citizens before the financial and economic crisis (71%). Citizen satisfaction is the highest in Belgium, Norway and Switzerland whereas it is the lowest in Chile and Greece where less than 4 citizens out of 10 report being satisfied with health care services. Over the last decade, satisfaction with health care increased the most in Turkey whereas it decreased the most in Greece, Iceland and Japan. In Greece, this has coincided with deep cuts in public spending on health, following the economic crisis and successive waves of austerity measures to reduce public deficits and debts (OECD, 2014).

A majority of citizens in OECD countries also report being satisfied with their education system and schools. In 2016, 67% of citizens reported being satisfied with the education system and schools in the city or area where they live, which is also comparable to the satisfaction level before the financial and economic crisis. Citizen satisfaction with the education system is the highest in Ireland, Norway and Switzerland whereas it is the lowest in Chile and Greece.

Over the last decade, satisfaction with the education system increased the most in Israel whereas it strongly decreased in Chile, Hungary Mexico and Spain. The increase in satisfaction in Israel is associated with a strong improvement over the same period in students score in the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in particular in mathematics and science.

The reported level of confidence with the judicial system and the courts is generally below the satisfaction levels with health and education systems. In 2016, on average, 55% of citizens in OECD countries reported having confidence in the judicial system and the courts with a small increase of 2 p.p since 2007. Compared to other services such as health care and education, the perceived confidence level with the judicial system and the courts might be less based on experiences with the actual services since fewer people have experiences with the courts than with the health care system and the education system.

In 2016, the confidence with the judicial system and the courts was the highest in Denmark, Norway and Switzerland with more than 8 people out of 10 reported having confidence in these institutions. By contrast, confidence with the judicial system and the courts was the lowest in Chile and Italy where less than a quarter of the population reported having confidence in these institutions. Over the past decade, confidence in the judicial system and the courts increased the most in the Czech Republic, Germany, Japan and Ireland whereas it decreased the most in Turkey.

Methodology and definitions

Data were collected by Gallup World Poll, generally based on a representative sample of 1000 citizens in each country. More information about this survey is available at: www.gallup.com/home.aspx.

Data on the level of satisfaction with health care refer to the percentage of people who answered “satisfied” to the question: “In the city or area where you live, are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the availability of quality health care?”

For education, data refer to the percentage of people who answered “satisfied” to the question: ”In the city or area where you live, are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the educational system or the schools?”

For justice, data refer to the percentage of people who answered “Yes” to the question: “In this country, do you have confidence in each of the following, or not? How about the judicial system and courts?”.

Data on citizen satisfaction with the local police are available online (see Annex F)

Figure notes

Data for Austria, Finland, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia and Switzerland are for 2006 rather than 2007. Data for Iceland and Luxembourg are for 2008 rather than 2007. Data for China are for 2013 rather than 2016.

14.3: Data for China are not available. The Korean data are not displayed due to reliability issues. The OECD will work towards improving the quality of data on judicial system and the courts.

Information on data for Israel: https://doi.org/10.1787/888932315602.