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Trust is an important element of social capital–an essential contributor to sustaining well-being outcomes, including economic progress.
Global comparisons of trust attitudes worldwide suggest substantial time-persistent cross-nation heterogeneity. On one extreme, in nations such as Norway, Sweden, and Finland, over 60% of respondents in the World Value Survey think that people can be trusted. And in the other extreme, in nations such as Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru, less than 10% think this is the case.
The map below, created by Reddit user: Chasing_Colours, shows the percentage of the population saying, “Most people can be trusted” in Europe.
According to the latest Ipsos survey, on average, across 30 nations, 30 percent of adults state most people can be trusted. Among these nations, interpersonal trust is highest in China and India, where 56% say most people can be trusted, and lowest in Brazil, Malaysia, and Turkey, where fewer than 15 percent state so.
According to the Ipsos team, people with a college education are more trusting than those without. On average, 35 percent of adults with a higher education degree say most people can be trusted vs. 28 percent of those with a medium level and 26 percent with a lower level. Russia is the only nation where people with a higher education level are less likely to be trusting of others.
