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: Finland
Trust in public institutions
In 2023, 47% of Finnish people reported high or moderately high trust in the national government, above the OECD average of 39%.
This number represents a decrease by 14 percentage points since 2021, the 2nd highest decrease among the eighteen OECD countries with available data.
Figure 1. Trust in national 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 government?”; neutral to option 5 and “low or no” to response options 0-4.
Similarly to most OECD countries, Finnish people place more trust in the police (87%), other people (78%) and courts and the judicial system (74%) than in the national government. More than half of the population reports high or moderately high trust in the national civil service (62%), news media (61%), local government (56%) and national parliament (54%). Although above OECD average, political parties (37%) are the least trusted institutions in Finland.
Figure 2. Share of population with high or moderately high trust in different public institutions, other people and media, 2021 and 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.
Finnish people who feel that the current political system does not let people like them have a say tend to trust the national government 38 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 Finland on average are more likely to have high or moderately high trust in the national government (51%) than women do (43%). The Finnish gender trust gap is thus slightly above the 7 percentage point average gender trust gap across OECD countries.
A higher share of older (52%) compared to younger people (32%) have high or moderately high trust in the national government, which places the Finnish age trust gap far above the OECD average of 7 percentage points. Likewise, the trust gap between people with and without financial concerns is above the OECD average, but the difference is much less stark. The gap between those with lower and higher educational attainment is similar in Finland compared to the average across OECD countries.
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 national 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 most of the considered measures, the satisfaction of people in Finland with day-to-day interactions with public institutions is above the OECD average.
A large majority of people in Finland (81%) with recent experience with the education system are satisfied with it, compared to 57% on average across the OECD. Moreover, 83% are satisfied with the administrative services they used, an important driver of trust in the civil service, compared to a 66% OECD average.
People in Finland find it more likely than the OECD average that government uses personal data legitimately: 78% of people in Finland find this likely, compared to the OECD average of 52%.
In contrast, only 36% of people in Finland expect that public sector adopts innovation to improve services, lower than the OECD average of 39%.
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 Finland, 2023
Note: The figure presents the unweighted OECD averages and values for Finland 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
Finland performs better than the OECD average for almost all measures of decision-making on complex policy issues. However, in Finland and across the OECD, a lower share of people in Finland have positive perceptions regarding complex decision-making than regarding day-to-day interactions with public institutions.
A very large majority of people in Finland (82%) are confident that government is ready to protect lives in an emergency, compared to 53% on average across OECD countries.
A majority of people in Finland (62%) expect that their country will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a share that is 20 percentage points higher than the average across OECD countries (42%).
Perceptions of government integrity are low in most countries: Only 31% of people in Finland find it likely that politicians refuse to render a political favour in return for a well-paid private sector job, equal to the average across OECD countries (31%).
Moreover, 21% of people in Finland 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 9 percentage points lower 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 Finland, 2023
Note: The figure presents the unweighted OECD averages and values for Finland 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.
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