Share of people agreeing with the statement "most people can be trusted" by country

% of respondents replying "Most people can be trusted" when asked "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".

Countries reporting
39
Highest
73.9%
Denmark
Lowest
4.2%
Peru
Median
27.3%
Years covered
39
1984–2022
Data points
225

What the numbers show

Share of people agreeing with the statement "most people can be trusted" is currently reported for 39 countries. The highest value is 73.9% in Denmark; the lowest is 4.2% in Peru.

The median across all reporting countries is 27.3%, and the mean is 33.1%.

The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 18.

Over the past decade 22 countries rose and 17 fell. The largest increase was in South Africa (up 102.2%), and the largest decrease in Peru (down 32.9%).

Share of people agreeing with the statement "most people can be trusted": full country ranking

#Country LatestYear 10-year changeTrend
1 Denmark 73.9% 2022 down 1.4% rising
2 Norway 72.1% 2022 down 1.6% rising
3 Finland 68.4% 2022 up 14.1% rising
4 China 63.5% 2022 up 28.8% rising
5 Sweden 62.8% 2022 down 1.8% rising
6 Iceland 62.3% 2022 up 28.4% rising
7 Netherlands 57.0% 2022 up 5.4% rising
8 Australia 48.5% 2022 up 6.5% rising
9 Canada 46.7% 2022 up 11.7% falling
10 United Kingdom 43.3% 2022 up 22.5% flat
11 Germany 41.6% 2022 up 16.9% rising
12 Spain 41.0% 2022 up 48.2% flat
13 Belarus 40.0% 2022 down 3.1% rising
14 United States 37.0% 2022 down 5.4% falling
15 Estonia 33.9% 2022 up 6.9% rising
16 Japan 33.7% 2022 down 7.9% falling
17 South Korea 32.9% 2022 up 17.6% falling
18 Lithuania 31.7% 2022 up 14.2% rising
19 Ukraine 28.3% 2022 up 9.1% flat
20 Czechia 27.3% 2022 down 7.3% flat
21 Hungary 27.2% 2022 up 13.2% falling
22 Italy 26.6% 2022 down 7.6% flat
23 France 26.3% 2022 up 10.9% rising
24 Slovenia 25.3% 2022 up 19.8% rising
25 Poland 24.1% 2022 up 5.5% flat
26 South Africa 23.3% 2014 up 102.2% falling
27 Russia 22.9% 2022 down 12.8% falling
28 Latvia 22.2% 2022 down 11.0% rising
29 Slovakia 21.6% 2022 up 78.4% falling
30 Argentina 19.2% 2022 up 10.4% falling
31 Bulgaria 17.1% 2022 down 6.4% falling
32 India 16.9% 2022 down 18.1% falling
33 Turkey 14.0% 2022 up 58.2% rising
34 Nigeria 13.0% 2022 down 13.4% falling
35 Chile 12.9% 2022 up 4.3% falling
36 Romania 12.1% 2022 down 32.0% falling
37 Mexico 10.5% 2022 down 32.1% falling
38 Brazil 6.5% 2022 down 29.4% rising
39 Peru 4.2% 2022 down 32.9% falling

About this data

Indicator
Share of people agreeing with the statement "most people can be trusted"
Unit
%
Source
Integrated Values Surveys (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage
39 places, 225 data points, 1984–2022
Last refreshed

% of respondents replying "Most people can be trusted" when asked "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".