Trust Survey International Comparisons 2023

Overview

Respondents to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Trust Survey were asked to rate their trust levels in different government organisations, public institutions, and people on a 0-10-point scale from ‘0 Not at all’ to ‘10 Completely’. The OECD’s publication reports 0-4 scores as ‘low or no trust’, 5 as ‘neutral’ and 6-10 scores are grouped as ‘high or moderately high trust’.

Interpersonal Trust

Ireland showed the highest percentage of respondents who reported high or moderately high trust in most people (83%) when compared to all other countries in the OECD 2023 Trust Survey. This was closely followed by Iceland (82%). Among EU member states, the Czechia saw the lowest percentage (47%) of respondents who reported high or moderately high trust in most people.  

Higher levels of interpersonal trust were seen when compared to national government, local government and parliament (the Oireachtas). The percentage of respondents who had a high or moderately high level of trust in most people ranged from 43% (in Costa Rica) to 83% (in Ireland). Whereas for national government, local government and parliament, the percentage of respondents who reported high or moderately high trust ranged from 19% to 63% (see below for further details).

Trust in Government and Political Parties

Respondents were asked to rate their trust in different levels of government: parliament, national government, and local government. Differing levels and ranges in trust in the different government organisations were seen across OECD participant countries. Differences were also found when comparing trust in political parties to trust in government organisations. The data for Ireland indicated a difference in Irish trust between national government and parliament, compared to local government, relative to other OECD countries.  

Switzerland and Luxembourg were found to have the highest percentage of respondents who reported high or moderately high trust in national government, local government, and parliament (see Figures 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4, respectively).  

The percentage of respondents who reported high or moderately high trust in national government ranged from 19% (in Czechia) to 62% (in Switzerland). For high or moderately high trust in national government, Ireland ranked eighth highest (47%). This was a similar rate to that seen in Finland and Belgium.

The percentage of respondents who reported high or moderately high trust in local government ranged from 34% to 63%. In Ireland, 41% of respondents reported high or moderately high trust in local government. Costa Rica, Columbia, and the United Kingdom ranked lowest (34%) for the percentage of respondents who reported high or moderately high trust. Switzerland and Luxembourg ranked highest for high or moderately high trust in local government at 63% and 62% respectively.

Out of the 30 OECD countries surveyed the Trust Survey 2023, Ireland ranked fifth highest (49%) for the percentage of respondents who reported high or moderately high trust in parliament (the Oireachtas). The percentage of respondents who reported high or moderately high trust in parliament ranged from 19% (in Chile) to 57% (in Luxembourg).

In all participant countries, a lower percentage of respondents reported high or moderately high trust in political parties when compared to local government, national government, or parliament. The percentage of respondents who reported high or moderately high trust in political parties ranged from 12% to 38%. This range was narrower compared to the range of the proportion of respondents reporting high or moderately high trust in different levels of government (see above). 

Ireland fell close to the middle of this range with 26% of respondents reporting high or moderately high trust. The United Kingdom had the lowest percentage (12%) of respondents reporting high or moderately high trust in political parties when compared to other participant countries. The highest proportion of respondents reporting high or moderately high trust in political parties was seen in Switzerland at 38%.

Trust in the police, courts and legal system, and the civil service

The percentage of respondents with high or moderately high trust in the police ranged from 87% to 39%. In Ireland, 70% of respondents reported having high or moderately high trust in the Gardaí. Similar levels of trust in police were seen in New Zealand (71%), Sweden (69%) and Denmark (69%). Finland had the highest percentage of respondents reporting high or moderately high trust in police at 87% whilst Colombia had the lowest percentage (39%).

The percentage of respondents with high or moderately high trust in the courts and legal system ranged from 77% (seen in Norway) to 25% (seen in Chile). In the United Kingdom, 62% of respondents reported high or moderately high trust in the courts and legal system compared to Ireland at 69%.

The percentage of respondents who reported high or moderately high trust in the civil service ranged from 24% to 66%. Ireland was found to have the highest percentage of respondents (66%) who reported high or moderately high trust in the civil service followed by Iceland (64%) and Finland (62%). Chile had the lowest percentage (24%) of respondents who reported high or moderately high trust in the civil service.

Trust in the news media

The percentage of respondents who reported having high or moderately high trust in the news media ranged from 19% to 62%. United Kingdom had the lowest percentage of respondents (19%) reporting high or moderately high trust in the news media. Ireland had a similar level of respondents (47%) reporting high or moderately high trust as Norway (49%) and Sweden (45%). Iceland had the highest proportion of respondents (62%) reporting high or moderately high trust in the news media.

Trust in international organisations

The percentage of respondents who reported having high or moderately high trust in international organisations such as the United Nations ranged from 25% to 64% across the OECD countries surveyed*. Ireland was found to have the highest percentage of respondents (64%) who reported high or moderately high trust in international organisations. This was followed by Mexico (60%) and Denmark (57%). The United Kingdom had the lowest levels with 25% of respondents reporting high or moderately high trust in international organisations. 

*Note: Finland and Norway did not collect responses on trust levels in international organisations.

OECD average trust scores

The OECD average score for each trust level indicator was calculated by adding the percentage of respondents who had high or moderately high trust in the given institution for each country and dividing the total by the number of countries that had a score for the particular indicator. Care should be taken when interpreting the average scores as some national questionnaires did not contain questions related to some of the trust indicators.

Satisfaction in services

Respondents were surveyed about recent access to, and satisfaction with, the education system, healthcare system, and administrative services, in their country of residence. The data for Ireland indicated differing levels of satisfaction with Irish services. Respondents who had recent access to the education system were asked to rank their satisfaction level on a scale of 0 (Not at all satisfied) to 10 (Completely satisfied). Those with a score of 6-10 were grouped as satisfied. Respondents with recent contact were those who answered yes to the question “In the last 2 years, have you or somebody in your household been enrolled in an educational institution…” in their country of residence. 

The percentage of respondents who reported being satisfied in the education system ranged from 37% to 81% across the OECD countries surveyed. Ireland ranked seventh highest for the percentage of respondents who reported being satisfied in the education system (68%) when compared to other participating OECD countries. 

Finland ranked highest (81%) followed by Switzerland (76%). Greece had the lowest percentage of respondents who reported being satisfied with the education system (37%).

Respondents with recent access to the healthcare system were those who answered yes to the question “In the last 12 months, have you or somebody in your household personally made use of the healthcare system…” in their country of residence. Respondents with recent access were asked to rank their satisfaction level on a scale of 0 (Not at all satisfied) to 10 (Completely satisfied). Those with a score of 6-10 were grouped as satisfied. 

The percentage of respondents who reported being satisfied in the healthcare system ranged from 26% to 81% across the OECD countries surveyed. In contrast to the data for the education system, Ireland alongside Slovakia had the lowest percentage of respondents who reported being satisfied with the healthcare system (26%). Belgium had the highest percentage of respondents who reported being satisfied in the healthcare system (81%).

Respondents with recent access to administrative services were those who answered yes to the question “In the last 12 months, have you personally made use of administrative service in [country] (for example, applying for a passport, registering a birth, or applying for benefits etc.)?” Such respondents were asked to rank their satisfaction level on a scale of 0 (Not at all satisfied) to 10 (Completely satisfied). Those with a score of 6-10 were grouped as satisfied. 

The percentage of respondents who reported being satisfied in the quality of administrative services in their country ranged from 43% to 84% across the OECD countries surveyed. Estonia, Finland, and Luxembourg reported the highest percentage of respondents who were satisfied with the quality of administrative services with more than eight in ten respondents reporting a satisfaction rating of 6 or higher on the 0-10-point scale. Ireland placed fifth lowest in the percentage of respondents who reported being satisfied in administrative services (51%). Similar levels were seen in Germany and Chile. Portugal had the lowest percentage of respondents who reported being satisfied with the quality of administrative services (43%).

Similarly to Ireland, in the majority of countries satisfaction levels in the different service types varied from service to service. For example, in Luxembourg the quality of administrative services had the highest percentage of respondents who reported being satisfied (84%) when compared to the healthcare system (73%) or the education system (43%). In contrast, in Belgium the healthcare system saw the highest percentage of respondents who reported satisfaction in the service (81%) when compared to administrative services (74%) and education (64%). However, in Italy a similar proportion of respondents were found to be satisfied with the healthcare system (48%), administrative services (48%) and the education system (51%).

OECD average satisfaction in public services scores

The OECD average score for each satisfaction level indicator was calculated by adding the percentage of respondents who had recent access to the given public service who were satisfied with that service in each country and dividing the total by the number of countries that had a score for the particular indicator.