The inaugural OECD Survey on the Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions (Trust Survey) is a new measurement tool for democratic governments seeking to improve public confidence in government reliability, responsiveness, integrity, fairness and openness. Twenty-two OECD countries volunteered to participate in the first wave of the programme, taking a collective step forward to measure and better understand what drives people’s trust in public institutions in order to build further the resilience of their democracies. Most countries were surveyed in November-December 2021, with a few surveys taking place in 2020 and January-March 2022.

Trust is an important indicator to measure how people perceive the quality of, and how they associate with, government institutions in democratic countries. At the same time, high trust in public institutions is of course not a necessary outcome of democratic governance. Indeed, low levels of trust measured in democracies are only possible because citizens in democratic systems – unlike in autocratic ones – are free to report that they do not trust their government. The resilience of our democratic systems comes from the open public debate they foster, enabling them to improve and meet increasing citizen expectations.

Results of the survey vary significantly across countries due to a range of cultural, social, institutional and economic factors. Cross-national comparisons should thus be considered carefully. Nonetheless, the results show clear overall tendencies affecting OECD members and reveal common focal points for the future that do not preclude other important areas that may be more country-specific.

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