Believe A Dane, Not An Albanian: These Are The World’s Most Trusting Societies

This post was republished with permission from Zero Hedge

Trust is the social glue that binds communities, shapes institutions, and fuels economic activity.

The infographic below, via Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao, ranks 90 economies by the share of adults who agree that “most people can be trusted,” using nationally representative survey data from 2022, published 2024.

The data for this visualization comes from Integrated Values Surveys, accessed via Our World in Data.

Ranked: Most and Least Trusting Countries

Denmark leads with 74% of respondents saying that most people can be trusted, followed closely by Norway (72%) and Finland (68%).

Rank	Country	Code	(%) Agree with “Most people can be trusted.”
1	Denmark	DNK	74
2	Norway	NOR	72
3	Finland	FIN	68
4	China	CHN	63
5	Sweden	SWE	63
6	Iceland	ISL	62
7	Switzerland	CHE	59
8	Netherlands	NLD	57
9	New Zealand	NZL	57
10	Austria	AUT	50
11	Australia	AUS	49
12	Canada	CAN	47
13	UK	GBR	43
14	Germany	DEU	42
15	Macao	MAC	41
16	Spain	ESP	41
17	Belarus	BLR	40
18	Northern Ireland	GBR	39
19	U.S.	USA	37
20	Hong Kong	HKG	36
21	Singapore	SGP	34
22	Estonia	EST	34
23	Japan	JPN	34
24	Uzbekistan	UZB	34
25	South Korea	KOR	33
26	Lithuania	LTU	32
27	Taiwan	TWN	31
28	Thailand	THA	29
29	Ukraine	UKR	28
30	Czechia	CZE	27
31	Hungary	HUN	27
32	Italy	ITA	27
33	Azerbaijan	AZE	26
34	France	FRA	26
35	Mongolia	MNG	26
36	Andorra	AND	25
37	Slovenia	SVN	25
38	Poland	POL	24
39	Pakistan	PAK	23
40	Russia	RUS	23
41	Kazakhstan	KAZ	23
42	Latvia	LVA	22
43	Montenegro	MNE	22
44	Slovakia	SVK	22
45	Maldives	MDV	21
46	Tajikistan	TJK	21
47	Malaysia	MYS	20
48	Argentina	ARG	19
49	Guatemala	GTM	18
50	Puerto Rico	PRI	18
51	Armenia	ARM	18
52	Bulgaria	BGR	17
53	India	IND	17
54	Portugal	PRT	17
55	Morocco	MAR	17
56	Serbia	SRB	16
57	Jordan	JOR	16
58	Myanmar	MMR	15
59	North Macedonia	MKD	15
60	Iran	IRN	15
61	Uruguay	URY	14
62	Venezuela	VEN	14
63	Turkey	TUR	14
64	Tunisia	TUN	14
65	Croatia	HRV	14
66	Nigeria	NGA	13
67	Bangladesh	BGD	13
68	Chile	CHL	13
69	Kyrgyzstan	KGZ	13
70	Romania	ROU	12
71	Ethiopia	ETH	12
72	Iraq	IRQ	11
73	Mexico	MEX	10
74	Lebanon	LBN	10
75	Bosnia and Herzegovina	BIH	10
76	Kenya	KEN	9
77	Libya	LBY	9
78	Georgia	GEO	9
79	Bolivia	BOL	9
80	Greece	GRC	8
81	Egypt	EGY	7
82	Cyprus	CYP	7
83	Brazil	BRA	7
84	Ecuador	ECU	6
85	Philippines	PHL	5
86	Indonesia	IDN	5
87	Colombia	COL	5
88	Nicaragua	NIC	4
89	Peru	PER	4
90	Albania	ALB	3

Note: From samples of roughly 1,000–1,500+ interviews of adults per country, conducted in waves. Responses shown to the question, “Generally speaking, would you say that most people can be trusted or that you need to be very careful in dealing with people?” Possible answers include “Most people can be trusted”, “Do not know” and “Need to be very careful”. The UK includes England, Scotland, and Wales, with Northern Ireland listed separately. Figures are rounded. Major processing done by Our World in Data.

Long-standing welfare systems, low corruption, and transparent governments foster consistent high trust across the Nordic region.

Middling Trust in the Anglosphere and Western Europe

English-speaking nations occupy the middle of the pack. New Zealand (57%) and Australia (49%) perform better than Canada (47%), the UK (43%), and the U.S. (37%).

Western European countries show similar dispersion: Switzerland (59%) and the Netherlands (57%) outpace Germany (42%), France (26%), and Italy (27%).

Differences in income inequality and political polarization help explain these gaps.

?? Related: See which countries are the most politically polarized.

Low-Trust Soceities

Several Latin American nations—Peru (4%), Nicaragua (4%), Colombia (5%), and Ecuador (6%)—rank near the bottom.

Chronic political instability, high crime rates, and economic volatility contribute to scarce interpersonal trust.

In the Middle East, Iraq (11%), Lebanon (10%), and Egypt (7%) also report very low levels, reflecting decades of conflict and governance challenges.

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out How Much Do Different Countries Trust Institutions? on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

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