Trust in National and International Institutions

Please see also: Detailed overview of occurrence of items over time (192 kB)

Eurobarometer 24

How much do you trust the (national government) to do what is right? Do you trust it just about always, most of the time, only some of the time, or almost never?

Eurobarometer 48 ff.

I would like to ask you a question about how much trust you have in certain institutions. For each of the following institutions, please tell me if you tend to trust it or tend not to trust it.

• The press
• The Radio
• Television
• The Internet 
• Online Social Networks [starting with EB 82.3]
• The Justice (the (national) legal) system
• The police
• The army
• The church [56.2 ff.: The religious institutions]
• Trade unions
• Political parties
• The Civil service
• Big companies 
• Small companies / SMEs [EB 74.2]
• The (national) government 
• The national Parliament (use proper name)
• The European Union 
• The United Nations
• Non-Governmental Organizations (or NGOs)
• Charitable [51 ff.: or voluntary] organizations 
• The educational system
• Consumer Associations 
• The Council of your city/village 
• Regional and local public authorities 
• NATO 

Trust in European Institutions

Eurobarometer 41 to 45

Many important decisions are made by the European Union. They might be in the interest of the of people like yourself, or they might not. To what extent do you feel you can rely on each of the following institutions to make sure that the decisions taken by this institution are in the interest of people like yourself (can rely on it / cannot rely on it)?

Eurobarometer 51.0 ff.
Follow-up question to 'awareness' (and 'perceived importance') of these institutions:

Have you ever heard of (European Institutions)? ... and for each of them, please tell me if you tend to trust it or tend not to trust it.

• The national Parliament (only up to EB 45)
• The (national) government (only up to EB 45)
• The European Parliament
• The European Commission
• The Council of Ministers of the European Union
• The (European) Court of Justice (of the European Union) 
• The European Ombudsman
• The European Central Bank
• The European Court of Auditors 
• The Committee of the Regions of the European Union 
• The (European) Social and Economic Committee (of the European Union) 
• The Convention on the future of the European Union 

SEE: "Population with confidence in EU institutions by institution" time series data provided by EUROSTAT (tables, graphs and maps).

(1) Please note that the variable names refer to the final ICPSR/ZA codebook editions, if available.

(2) Notice different question and answer wording! Only asked in Germany, France, Italy, Great Britain and Spain.

(3) 10-point-scale: 1. Cannot rely on it at all ... 10. Can rely on it completely.
/ 1. Do not trust at all ... 10. Trust completely

(4) Followed by the additional question: And, for each of them, please tell me if you are tending to put more trust or tending to put less trust in?

(5) Please tell me how much you trust each of the following? a) your local (city, town, village) government; b) your regional government; c) your national government; d) the European Union. Answer categories: a lot/a great deal of trust, some/a little trust, not very much trust, no trust at all.

(6) Two items modified: - The Council of the European Union; - The Court of Justice of the European Communities

(7) Preceding question on "awareness" dropped.

(8) 10-point-scale: "Please tell me how much you personally trust each of the following institutions using a scale from 1 to 10 where [1] means ‘you do not trust the institution at all' and [10] means ‘you trust it completely'." Two items only: - national parliament, - national government.

(9) Only one item: European Parliament