The OECD Trust Survey explores people’s perceptions of different public institutions in their country and the degree to which they trust their government. These perceptions range from day-to-day interactions with public institutions to decision making on complex policy issues. Initiated in 2021, the Trust Survey was carried out in 30 OECD countries in October and November 2023, with results representative of their respective adult populations.
OECD Survey on Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions 2024 Results - Country Notes: Spain
Trust in public institutions
In 2023, 37% of Spanish people reported high or moderately high trust in the central government, slightly below the OECD average of 39%. A higher share of people in Spain provided a neutral response and fewer indicate that they have low or no trust than is the case on average across the OECD.
Figure 1. Trust in national/central government, 2023
Share of population who indicate different levels of trust in their national government (on a 0-10 scale), 2023
Note: ‘High or moderately high’ corresponds to the aggregation of response options 6-10 to the question “On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is not at all and 10 is completely, how much do you trust the central government?”; neutral to option 5 and “low or no” to response options 0-4.
Similarly to most OECD countries, Spanish people place more trust in the police (61%), other people (59%), courts and the judicial system (45%) and local government (44%) than in the central government (37%). Around a third of the population reports high or moderately high trust in the central civil service (38%), news media (34%) and the national parliament (34%). Political parties (18%) are the least trusted institutions in Spain.
Figure 2. Share of population with high or moderately high trust in different public institutions, other people and media, 2023
Note: ‘High or moderately high’ corresponds to the aggregation of response options 6-10 to the question “On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is not at all and 10 is completely, how much do you trust [institution]?”; neutral to option 5 and “low or no” to response options 0-4.
Spanish people who feel that the current political system does not let people like them have a say tend to trust the national government 42 percentage points less than those who feel they have political voice. This trust gap is smaller than the average 47 percentage points gap across OECD countries.
Men in Spain on average are more likely to have high or moderately high trust in the national government (38%) than women do (36%). This gender trust gap is smaller than the 7 percentage point average gender trust gap across OECD countries.
The Spanish trust gaps between people with and without financial concerns and especially between younger and older people are below the OECD average, while the trust gap between those with lower and higher educational attainment is above the OECD average.
Figure 3. Share of population with high or moderately high trust in the national government by population group, 2023
Note: ‘High or moderately high’ corresponds to the aggregation of response options 6-10 to the question “On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is not at all and 10 is completely, how much do you trust the central government?”; neutral to option 5 and “low or no” to response options 0-4.
Perceptions of the public governance drivers of trust
Perceptions of day-to-day interactions with public institutions
For many of the considered measures, Spanish people’s satisfaction with day-to-day interactions with public institutions is similar to the OECD average.
A majority of Spanish people (58%) with recent experience with the healthcare system are satisfied with it, above the average across OECD countries (52%); and 57% are satisfied with the administrative services they used. This important driver of trust in the civil service is 9 percentage points lower than the OECD average (66%).
A higher share of people in Spain than across the OECD find it likely that public services are improved after complaints: 44% of people in Spain find this likely, compared to the OECD average of 39%.
Perceptions of integrity of public employees are low in most countries. In Spain, 39% of people expect that public employees would refuse bribes to speed up service access, higher than the OECD average (36%).
Figure 4. Perceptions of day-to-day interactions between the population and public institutions
Share of population who are satisfied with public services or find a positive action in the respective situation likely, OECD and Spain, 2023
Note: The figure presents the unweighted OECD averages and values for Spain of the share of respondents who choose a response of 6-10 on the 0-10 scale for the above questions. Satisfaction with public services is restricted to recent service users.
Perceptions of decision making on complex policy issues
Spain performs similar to the OECD average in almost all measures of decision-making on complex policy issues. However, in Spain and across the OECD a lower share of people have positive perceptions regarding complex decision-making than regarding day-to-day interactions with public institutions.
Just under half of Spanish people (49%) are confident that government is ready to protect lives in an emergency, compared to 53% on average across OECD countries.
Perceptions of government integrity are low in most countries. Nearly four in ten Spanish people (38%) find it likely that a politician would refuse to grant a political favour in return for a well-paid private sector job, a share that is 7 percentage points higher than the average across OECD countries (31%).
In contrast, only 27% of people in Spain find it likely that government would refuse requests from corporations that harm public interest, lower than the average across OECD countries (30%).
In Spain, 31% of people believe that the political system allows people like them to have a say in what the government does. This important driver of trust in the national government is in line with the average across OECD countries (30%). At the same time, 37% of Spanish people think the government would adopt opinions expressed in a public consultation, above the OECD average of 32%.
Figure 5. Perceptions of government decision making on complex decision making
Share of population who are confident in or find a positive action in the respective situation likely, OECD and Spain, 2023
Note: The figure presents the unweighted OECD averages and values for Spain of the share of respondents who choose a response of 6-10 on the 0-10 scale for the above questions.
For more information see oe.cd/trust
This work is published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Member countries of the OECD.
This document, as well as any data and map included herein, are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area.