By Amanda Mullan

Both public and private institutions are experiencing a decrease in trust, but this trend is particularly alarming for the government given its responsibility to serve all of us. Trust in government is essential for the legitimacy and sustainability of political systems.

This trend isn’t limited to the United States.

“Across the world, the level of trust in the public sector has become an issue that impacts service delivery for the public, which was a key focus of a recent convening of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development,” said Dan Chenok, NAPA Fellow and Executive Director of the IBM Center for The Business of Government.

Unfortunately, within the U.S., trust in government is at near-historic lows, as shown in multiple surveys. The Partnership for Public Service survey found trust in government decreased from 35 percent in 2022 to 28 percent in 2024 with distrust increasing from 46 percent to 63 percent in that same timeframe. This decline in trust is not attributed to any single factor or event, making it a complex challenge to address.

Finding where the issue is most pronounced – and most deeply embedded - can help steer us toward potential solutions.

By Level of Government

Across a wide range of countries, including the U.S., there is higher trust in local governments than in national governments. In the U.S., according to Gallup,  67 percent of respondents reported trust in their local government to handle their local problems, and 59 percent trusted their state government to handle state problems. However, in the same poll from 2023, just 37 percent of respondents reported trusting the federal government to solve domestic problems.    

By Branch of Government

Globally, citizens have relatively low trust in legislative institutions. In the U.S., 32 percent of respondents trust the legislative branch of the federal government. It is important to note that most respondents associate the federal government with politics and politicians, both of which have unfavorable trust scores. Specifically, when people hear “the federal government,” most respondents think of Congress, the President, or the Supreme Court rather than federal agencies.

By Race, Gender, Age, Education

Trust in the U.S. government varies across different measures of demographics.

• By Race. Trust in the federal government among White adults was the lowest of all the racial demographics, at 19 percent, according to the Pew Research Center. In comparison, the Pew Research Center found trust in the federal government was 36 percent for Asian adults, 30 percent for Hispanic adults, and 27 percent for Black adults.

• By Gender. According to the Partnership for Public Service, males are slightly more likely to trust their government than women. Forty-three percent of males surveyed said they trusted their government “a lot or somewhat,” compared to 38 percent of females surveyed.

• By Age. Age is not a large predictor of trust, according to the Partnership for Public Service; however, there is variation when cross-referenced against other demographics. For example, 22 percent of Republicans who are older than 50 say they trust the federal government while 33 percent of younger Republicans say they do.

• By Education. The Partnership for Public Service reports that college graduates are more likely to trust the government (51 percent) than non-college graduates (36 percent).

By Political Party

According to the Pew Research Center, trust in government is typically higher among members of the party that controls the presidency. We can see this trend reflected most clearly in the disparity between the political parties’ level of trust in the executive branch: 83 percent of surveyed Democrats before the 2024 national election versus only 9 percent of surveyed Republicans.

At the time, Democrats reported higher rates of trust (52 percent), compared to Independents (28 percent) and Republicans (23 percent), according to Gallup. When looking across the three branches of government, Republicans have higher trust in the federal judicial branch.

By Country

When looking across all the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)-surveyed countries in 2023, about 40 percent of respondents said they trusted their national government, but a higher percentage (44 percent) said they had no or low trust in their national government.  The U.S. was not part of the OECD survey.

By Federal Agency

Trust scores for individual agencies are often higher than for the government as a whole. In 2024, the Pew Research Center found that most Americans view most federal agencies favorably, with the National Park Service (76 percent favorable), U.S. Postal Service (72 percent), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (67 percent) receiving the highest scores.

In addition, institutions that focus on customer service and reliability tend to have higher trust levels. The  Customer Experience Executive Order aimed to improve customer life experiences by focusing on human-centered design, rather than bureaucratic silos. 

In July 2024, the President’s Management Agenda began collecting data on customers from specific agencies and interactions with the government (i.e., applying for a replacement social security card through the Social Security Administration). For 27 of 49 services, most respondents said they trusted the relevant agency to meet public needs.  This is positive news, but it also indicates opportunities for continuing improvement with at least 22 of these services.

By Satisfaction with Government Services

Despite respondents reporting low trust in the federal government overall the Partnership for Public Service found that Americans who have interacted with the federal government have generally been satisfied. Further, citizen satisfaction with federal government services reached a 7-year high in 2024 with a score of 69.7 out of 100. This result comes after an initiative that launched a customer service improvement initiative that focused on five key life experiences that trigger important interactions between members of the public and federal agencies.

“The data clearly shows that improving the performance of government in delivering services also improves trust in government by the recipients of those services,” Chenok said.

Satisfaction scores on interactions such as applying for a passport, filing federal taxes, and voting in a federal election received satisfaction scores of 88 percent, 74 percent, and 77 percent, respectively. In addition, although more people said their personal experiences with the federal government had been more positive (48 percent) than not (38 percent), there’s clearly much room for improving service delivery.