Measures in green indicate an improving national trend or that we are outperforming at least 80% of countries.

Measures in red indicate a declining national trend or that we are outperforming less than 50% of countries.

Measures in yellow indicate stable trends or that we are outperforming 50-79% of countries.

Summary of Results

Of all the institutions we considered, trust is highest and most stable for local government and lowest for the criminal justice system. Trust in the scientific community was stable and even saw a small increase before COVID, but this declined slightly during COVID.

Three of the institutions we considered—the federal government, police, and higher education—have seen sharp declines in trust, among the steepest drops of any measures in this report. The trends in the other trust measures are stable. Trust is also declining on three measures relative to levels of trust expressed by citizens of other countries.

We do note some seemingly small differences in wording of the survey questions pertaining to trust of different institutions that make the cross-institutional comparisons in trust levels less definitive, but these likely do not influence the stark differences in trends across institutions.

Other Measures Considered

The board also considered, but did not include, other measures, including trust in public schools, the medical system, religion, the three branches of government, mass media, the military, big business, small business, organized labor, large tech companies, and banks. The public supported trust in public schools, the medical system, the three branches of government, the military, and banks.