Foreword  3

Acknowledgements  4

Executive summary  10

1 Drivers of trust over time: Lessons from the third wave of the OECD Trust Survey  12

1.1. Introduction  14

1.2. The context of the 2025 Trust Survey data collection  16

1.3. Levels and changes in trust in the national government  19

1.4. Drivers of trust in the national government  25

1.5. Levels and drivers of trust in local government and other public institutions  32

1.6. Areas for policy action to enhance trust  39

1.7. Outlook for the remainder of the report  39

References  43

Notes  44

2 Socioeconomic conditions, political agency and trust  45

2.1. Introduction  47

2.2. Differences in trust levels between population groups  47

2.3. Areas for policy action to enhance trust  62

References  65

Notes  66

3 Day-to-day interactions with public institutions and their implications for trust  67

3.1. Satisfaction with essential public services  69

3.2. Views on day-to-day interactions with public institutions  77

3.3. Perceptions of the responsiveness of public services  84

3.4. Areas for policy actions to increase trust  86

References  88

Notes  88

4 Views of government decision making on complex policy issues and trust  89

4.1. Introduction  91

4.2. Perceptions of the outcomes of government decision making on complex policy issues  91

4.3. Perceptions of the processes of government decision making on complex policy issues  96

4.4. Areas for policy actions to increase trust  102

References  103

Notes  103

5 Trustworthy artificial intelligence in the public sector  104

5.1. Most people remain sceptical of AI deployed in the public sector  106

5.2. AI has the potential to become a trust-enhancing force depending on public governance choices  111

5.3. Attitudes towards AI use in the public sector are uneven across population groups  115

5.4. Public governance levers for more trustworthy AI  119

5.5. Areas for policy action to increase trust  125

References  126

Notes  127

6 Political voice, barriers to participation and implications for trust in government  128

6.1. Introduction  129

6.2. Voting remains at the core of political voice in representative democracies  130

6.3. Barriers to influence and participation  133

6.4. Areas for policy action to increase trust  141

References  142

Notes  142

7 The evolution of trust in the national legislature and its drivers  143

7.1. The importance of trust in the legislature  145

7.2. Levels of and trends in trust in national legislatures  145

7.3. Public governance drivers of trust in legislatures  154

7.4. Areas for policy action to enhance trust  160

References  161

Notes  161

Annex A. Technical details about the data collection and regression analysis  162