Statistical news release

4 Nov 2026 12:32 PM

Publication of Trust in Public Institutions (2025): Findings from the Scottish Household Survey.

An Official Statistics Publication for Scotland.

The Scottish Household Survey: Trust in Public Institutions (2025): Findings from the Scottish Household Survey report, published today, contains key findings for the survey question on trust in public institutions in Scotland.

In 2025, adults in Scotland were most likely to trust the Health System and the Police (both 74%). Trust was lowest for the Scottish Government (46%) and Local Government (50%).

The Scottish Government (45%) and Local Government (41%) attracted the highest levels of distrust in 2025, while distrust was lowest for the Police (19%), the Education System (20%) and the Civil Service (22%). Compared with 2023, distrust increased most for Local Government (from 35% to 41%) and the Health System (from 18% to 24%).

‘Net trust’ is the difference between the percentage of people who expressed trust in an institution, and those who expressed distrust. More adults expressed trust than distrust in six of the seven institutions. The Police had the highest net trust (+54 percentage points), with 74% of adults expressing trust and 19% expressing distrust. Net trust in the Scottish Government was neutral, with equal proportions of adults expressing trust and distrust.

Trust varied across population groups. Adults aged 16 to 34 generally reported higher levels of trust than adults in the older age groups, while disabled adults reported lower trust and higher distrust than non-disabled adults across all institutions. Trust was also generally higher among minority ethnic groups and lower among adults living in the most deprived areas. Differences by sex and urban-rural classification were less pronounced.

Trust in all seven institutions was lower in 2025 than in 2022, with the largest declines for the Scottish Government and Local Government (both down nine percentage points). Changes in trust since 2023 were generally smaller than those seen earlier in the period, with trust levels increasing slightly for the Justice system and remaining stable for four of the seven institutions (the Police, Scottish Government, Civil Service and Education system) – suggesting that the decline in trust may be stabilising. Over the 2023 to 2025 time period, however, distrust increased for most institutions and fewer adults selected "don't know", indicating that views may have become more defined over time.

Background

The Trust in Public Institutions (2025): Findings from the Scottish Household Survey report provides key findings relating to Trust in Public Institutions in Scotland from the Scottish Household Survey.

The survey asked to what extent people trusted seven different public institutions:

The question is included in the Scottish Household Survey on a biennial basis, and the last report for this question was published in December 2023.

The report also provides an overview of key findings according to the following demographic characteristics: sex, age, disability, ethnicity, urban rural classification, and area deprivation. Changes in levels of trust vary across these characteristics and in relation to the different public institutions being asked about.

The full statistical publication is available on the Scottish Government website.  The data tables accompanying this publication can be found under ‘supporting documents’ on the publication page. The Trust in Public Institutions tables will be updated in the SHS Data Explorer at the end of November 2026. Results for other topics are available on the Scottish Household Survey results webpage.

The Scottish Household Survey (SHS) is an annual survey of the general population in Scotland, carried out since 1999. It aims to collect reliable and up-to-date information on a range of topics, through a random sample of people in private residences. It is a voluntary and interviewer-led survey. In 2025, as is typical, the SHS was carried out as a face-to-face interview, primarily administered in people’s homes. The 2025 methodology and fieldwork outcomes report provides details of the methods used.

These statistics are official statistics. Official statistics are produced in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics.