Trust - Our World in Data

Trust is essential for community, wellbeing, and effective cooperation. How does trust vary between different societies and locations and what matters for levels of trust?

Contents Trust is a fundamental element of social capital — essential for the cohesion of communities, vital for effective cooperation, and crucial for economic development. On this page we present data on trust and examine the distribution and reliability of available measures. We also explore the research that studies the link between trust and economic development. See all interactive charts on trust ↓ Interpersonal trust around the world One of the most widely used tools to measure trust attitudes across the world comes from the World Values Survey – an international research project that

related reading

• How and why humans trust: A meta-analysis and elaborated modelpmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
• The Inequality-Trust Nexus Revisited: At What Level of Aggregation Does Income Inequality Matter for Social Trust?link.springer.com
• On the Origins of Trustdigital.lib.washington.edu
• Our World in Dataourworldindata.org
• Interpersonal trust across six Asia-Pacific countries: testing and extending the 'high trust society' and 'low trust society' theory - PubMedpubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
• Minimal-trust investigationscold-takes.com
• The short history of global living conditions and why it matters that we know it | Our World in Dataourworldindata.org
• POVERTY, TRUST, AND SOCIAL DISTANCE: A SELF-REINFORCING “POVERTY TRAP”? | Social Philosophy and Policy | Cambridge Corecambridge.org
• The smart move: we learn more by trusting than by not trustingaeon.co
• IFTF: Homegrown Governanceiftf.org
• Trust develops gradually via making bids and setting boundaries — LessWronglesswrong.com
• World Happiness, Trust and Social Connections in Times of Crisis | The World Happiness Reportworldhappiness.report