Interpersonal trust varies widely across countries

When asked if most people can be trusted, responses vary significantly around the world—

For decades, the World Values Survey and European Values Survey projects have examined people’s values through their surveys. One of the questions on trust asks: “Generally speaking, would you say that most people can be trusted or that you need to be very careful in dealing with people?”

This chart shows the share of respondents who answered “most people can be trusted” across different countries.

As you can see, reported trust in others varies widely from country to country. In the Nordic nations, over 60% of respondents believe most people can be trusted, while in France and Italy, this figure drops to around 26%. At the lower end, as few as 5% of people in countries like Colombia and Peru express trust in others.

It’s worth noting that interpretations of survey-based “trust” measures are complex: what people mean when they answer this question could reflect various ideas about trust, personal experiences, or cultural attitudes toward trustworthiness.

See the data tab for a broader selection of countries.

(This Daily Data Insight was written by Edouard Mathieu.)