Generalised trust (i77)
- 31/10/2025
- objective
- assessment
In 2023, 51% of the population aged 15 and over in Belgium, estimated that, in general, most people can be trusted. To achieve the sustainable development goal by 2030, generalised trust must not decrease. Between 2002 and 2023, the trend is favourable (assessment of November 2025).
Generalised trust - Belgium and international comparison
score at least 6 on 0-10 scale
percentage of population aged 15 and over
| 2002 | 2004 | 2006 | 2008 | 2010 | 2012 | 2014 | 2016 | 2018 | 2021 | 2023 | 2023//2002 | 2023//2016 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belgium | 37.7 | 37.7 | 40.5 | 43.6 | 41.0 | 45.5 | 39.5 | 46.8 | 43.9 | 51.5 | 51.0 | 1.4 | 1.2 |
| Germany | 33.1 | 37.0 | 37.4 | 38.8 | 34.6 | 40.5 | 39.4 | 46.0 | 47.8 | 34.8 | 40.9 | 1.0 | -1.7 |
| France | 26.1 | 28.7 | 28.2 | 27.4 | 25.4 | 28.7 | 30.0 | 29.1 | 29.8 | 31.4 | 29.6 | 0.6 | 0.3 |
| Netherlands | 58.3 | 63.6 | 62.5 | 64.5 | 66.9 | 66.1 | 63.0 | 67.2 | 65.6 | 72.4 | 69.4 | 0.8 | 0.5 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | |||||||||||||
Source: Calculations FPB based on ESS (2025), Dataset European Social Survey, http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/, last update of data 02/06/2025 (consulted on 01/10/2025)
Generalised trust by sex - Belgium
score at least 6 on 0-10 scale
percentage of population aged 15 and over
| 2002 | 2004 | 2006 | 2008 | 2010 | 2012 | 2014 | 2016 | 2018 | 2021 | 2023 | 2023//2002 | 2023//2016 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| females | 37.0 | 34.6 | 39.1 | 40.8 | 37.8 | 42.1 | 37.0 | 45.5 | 42.5 | 51.4 | 50.9 | 1.5 | 1.6 |
| males | 38.9 | 40.9 | 42.1 | 46.6 | 44.3 | 49.1 | 42.2 | 48.2 | 45.4 | 51.6 | 51.0 | 1.3 | 0.8 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | |||||||||||||
Source: Calculations FPB based on ESS (2025), Dataset European Social Survey, http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/, last update of data 02/06/2025 (consulted on 01/10/2025)
Generalised trust by income - Belgium
score at least 6 on 0-10 scale
percentage of population aged 15 and over
| 2010 | 2012 | 2014 | 2016 | 2018 | 2021 | 2023 | 2023//2010 | 2023//2016 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| quintile 1 | 38.6 | 38.1 | 27.0 | 37.9 | 42.2 | 38.9 | 40.4 | 0.4 | 0.9 |
| quintile 2 | 34.0 | 37.1 | 31.3 | 43.7 | 38.1 | 45.6 | 46.4 | 2.4 | 0.9 |
| quintile 3 | 38.8 | 43.3 | 35.7 | 41.8 | 41.2 | 48.1 | 50.6 | 2.1 | 2.8 |
| quintile 4 | 44.5 | 53.3 | 46.8 | 53.4 | 47.0 | 57.2 | 58.0 | 2.1 | 1.2 |
| quintile 5 | 55.8 | 58.4 | 55.5 | 58.2 | 57.5 | 62.2 | 63.2 | 1.0 | 1.2 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | |||||||||
Source: Calculations FPB based on ESS (2025), Dataset European Social Survey, http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/, last update of data 02/06/2025 (consulted on 01/10/2025)
Definition: generalised trust is measured by the proportion of participants to the European Social Survey (ESS) who gave a score of at least 6 out of 10 to the question "Would you say that most people can generally be trusted, or that you can never be too careful in your contacts with people?" Respondents can give an answer on a scale from 0 ("you can never be too careful") to 10 ("most people are trustworthy"). This question was systematically asked in the eleven biennial ESS surveys. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the survey for 2020 was postponed to 2021. The indicator is calculated by the FPB based on data from the ESS. Since these data are based on surveys, a margin of uncertainty must be considered. The confidence intervals for these data are available on request.
The following breakdowns are available for this indicator: region and income.
Goal: generalised trust must not decrease.
The Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs adopted by the UN in 2015 include goal 16: “Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.”
UN indicator: the selected indicator does not correspond to any monitoring indicator for the SDGs, but is related to goal 16. Trust is a fundamental element of social capital, important for peaceful societies (Ortiz-Ospina and Roser, 2018).
Sources
- Ortiz-Ospina E. and Roser M. (2018), Trust, https://ourworldindata.org/trust (consulted on 03/10/2025).
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