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 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: Switzerland
Trust in public institutions
In 2023, 62% of Swiss people reported high or moderately high trust in the federal government, above the OECD average of 39%.
Figure 1. Trust in national/federal 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 national/federal government?”; neutral to option 5 and “low or no” to response options 0-4.
Similarly to most OECD countries, Swiss people place more trust in the police (75%), courts and the judicial system (69%) and other people (65%) than in the national government. More than half of the population reports high or moderately high trust in the national parliament (53%), the national civil service (56%) and local government (63%). Political parties (38%) and news media (40%) are the least trusted institutions in Switzerland.
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 the national/federal government?”; neutral to option 5 and “low or no” to response options 0-4.In Switzerland, the national government and civil service refer to the federal government and civil service; and the regional to the cantonal government.
Swiss people who feel that the current political system does not let people like them have a say tend to trust the national government 51 percentage points less than those who feel they have political voice. This trust gap is larger than the 47 percentage points gap on average across OECD countries.
Men in Switzerland on average are more likely to have high or moderately high trust in the national government (67%) than women do (57%). The Swiss gender trust gap is thus above the 7 percentage point average gender trust gap across OECD countries.
The Swiss trust gap between people with lower and higher educational attainment is above the OECD average. The trust gaps between younger and older people and between those with and without financial concerns in Switzerland are similar to the OECD average gap.
Figure 3. Share of population with high or moderately high trust in the national/federal 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 national/federal 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 all of the considered measures, satisfaction of Swiss people with day-to-day interactions with public institutions is above the OECD average.
A large majority of Swiss (73%) with recent experience with the healthcare system are satisfied with it, compared to 52% on average across the OECD. Moreover, 81% are satisfied with the administrative services they used, an important driver of trust in the civil service, compared to a 66% OECD average.
Swiss people find it more likely than the OECD average that opportunity to voice opinions on local government’s decision: 60% of people in Switzerland find this likely, compared to the OECD average of 42%.
Perceptions of integrity of public employees are low in most countries: Only 42% of Swiss expect that public employees would refuse bribes to speed up service access, although still higher than the OECD average of 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 Switzerland, 2023
Note: The figure presents the unweighted OECD averages and values for Switzerland 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 on decision making on complex policy issues
Switzerland performs better than the OECD average in all measures of decision-making on complex policy issues.
A large majority of Switzerland (70%) find it likely that the government would be ready to protect lives in case of a national emergency, compared to 53% on average across OECD countries.
A majority in Switzerland (60%) expect that government takes decisions based on best available evidence, a share that is 19 percentage points higher than the average across OECD countries (41%).
Perceptions of government integrity are low in most countries: Only 31% of people in Switzerland find it likely that government would refuse a corporation’s demand that could be harmful to society as a whole, on par with the OECD average of 30%.
A majority of Swiss people (58%) believe that the political system allows people like them to have a say in what government does. This important driver of trust in the national government is 28 percentage points higher than on average across OECD countries (30%).
Figure 5. Perceptions of government decision making on complex policy issues
Share of population who are confident in or find a positive action in the respective situation likely, OECD and Switzerland, 2023
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.