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

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.

ℹ️ 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.

Ranked: Most and Least Trusting Countries

Middling Trust in the Anglosphere and Western Europe

Low-Trust Soceities

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