OECD Survey on Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions 2026 Results: Greece
Table of contents
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. It showcases evidence on people’s experiences with and expectations of government reliability, responsiveness, fairness, integrity and openness. The 2025 survey, which followed earlier rounds in 2021 and 2023, includes 33 OECD countries and 5 OECD accession countries. The survey covers a representative sample of the adult population of each participating country. It was carried out between 10 September and 17 November in Greece, aligned with data collection in a majority of participating countries.
Between 2023 and 2025, Greece recorded a decrease in trust in the national government. High or moderately high trust fell from 32% in 2023 to 24% in 2025, below the OECD average (40%).
Share of population who indicate different levels of trust in their national government (on a 0-10 scale), 2025
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.
Historical and structural factors can have long-term effects on trust, above and beyond short-term changes linked for example to the political cycle. There is mixed evidence on the relationship between having undergone a transition to democracy a few decades prior and trust in institutions today, with the preponderance leaning towards perceptions of institutional performance today mattering more than historical legacies. By contrast, deep structural crises may trigger declines in trust that take considerable time to reverse. (see Box 1).
Long before the severe economic depression which began in 2009-10 and lasted during most of the 2010s, during which Greece lost a quarter of its 2008 GDP and saw unemployment peak at 27%, trust in government and in public institutions was not particularly high. In the aftermath of the economic crisis, trust levels appear to have moved to a lower baseline with higher volatility.
Eurobarometer data show two longer-term trends (see Figure 2). Following a peak in 2004 (the year Greece hosted the Olympic Games, with trust levels exceeding 50%) a steep downward trend is visible. This downward trend lasted until 2012, the deepest point in the economic crisis, when the share of the population that tended to trust the national government collapsed to a historical low of 7%. Subsequently, a more gradual upward trend can be noticed, reflecting the slow but unstable improvement of macroeconomic conditions. During this period, trust peaked in 2015, representing the promise of a new government to end austerity but instead adopting the third bailout austerity program, and in 2020, when – as in many other countries – possibly positive perceptions of pandemic management contributed to rising trust. Still, even at the relative peaks of 2015 and 2020, trust never exceeded 37%, well below the pre-2008 average trust level of 44% across the available years.
The Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 interrupted the slow economic recovery that had followed Greece’s post-2009 Great Depression. In contrast to the slow recovery in the 2010s, per capita GDP returned to the pre-2020 level much more quickly – by the third quarter of 2021 (OECD, 2024[2]) – and growth levels have consistently exceeded the Euro area average since. Unemployment declined from 16% in 2020 to 8.5% in 2025, and disposable income increased for all, especially the lowest deciles of the income distribution.
Share of population that tend to trust the national government, Greece, 1995-2023
Note: The figure shows the share who answer ‘tend to trust’ in response to the question “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. Government” in the Eurobarometer survey.
Source: Tufiș, C., Ghica, L., Radu, B. (2024). Long-Term trends of Political Trust Dynamics (1980-2023)", https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/7ETG2Q, Harvard Dataverse, V1
Recent years have been marked by substantial public investment in prudent economic management and the modernisation of public administration, laying important foundations for strengthening institutional effectiveness and public trust over the longer term. The achievement of a fiscal surplus in 2024 and 2025 (and sustainable primary budget surpluses in many years since 2013) followed a decade of modernisation of the country’s public financial management system (OECD, 2026[3]). In the area of essential public services, the country is systematically evaluating user experiences and investing in the provision of digitalised public services, contributing to drastically reduced processing times in different areas including the issuing of new pensions.
This has been accompanied by efforts to reinforce public integrity. One of the objectives of Greece’s 2022-2025 National Anti-Corruption Action Plan was to strengthen people’s trust in public institutions, along with improving the investment climate. The OECD Anti-Corruption and Integrity Outlook 2026 reports on the progress made by Greece in strengthening the strategic framework for public integrity and anti-corruption policies and ranks Greece amongst countries with the strongest strategies and implementation in place. (OECD, 2026[3]).
Given Greece’s substantial progress in governance and economic outcomes, what might explain such variable levels of trust? It may be that public perceptions, and trust, operate at a lag and do not fully reflect the improved economic outcomes and investments in public services. Nevertheless, data from the Trust Survey show first signs that certain perceptions may indeed be improving at pace in Greece. For example, while overall satisfaction with administrative services among the general population have stood largely stable at 50-51% between 2023 and 2025, the share of recent users who are satisfied with certain individual service aspects such as the speed of obtaining the service and the competence of the public employees they interacted with have improved by four percentage points. Similarly, while other measures of public integrity stayed stable or slightly declined, the share of the population who find it likely that government would refuse the request of a corporation that would be in its but potentially against the public interest has increased substantially by five percentage points from 2023 to 2025. Other indicators, however, still reveal room for improvement.
Greece stands out as an example of an asynchronous evolution of trust levels compared to improvements on the ground. It testifies to the general observation that, where trust levels are chronically low – be it in a country as a whole, or for particular population groups - the recovery of trust in government takes time. Addressing this trend, Greece over the recent years has been focusing on policies improving public satisfaction, including through systematically evaluating and incorporating user feedback on the performance of specific public services. Specifically, it relies on digital tools designed to capture user experience with public services, including healthcare and hospital care, alongside a performance monitoring hub for local government that is accessible to all citizens. For example, on public health satisfaction, the average satisfaction among 65 000 users reached 4.1 out of 5. The findings particularly highlight the dedication of the medical and nursing staff, while satisfaction with hospital catering is much lower.
While improvements in governance and outcomes rarely lead to quick boosts to trust levels – in particular in a context where deep and recurrent crises may have durably undermined public trust – these efforts by the government are likely to support a longer-term recovery in trust in public institutions.
Trust in public institutions in Greece varies across institutions and tends to fall below the OECD averages for several political and administrative institutions. In 2025, trust was higher in law-and-order and administrative institutions than in political institutions, in line with OECD-wide patterns. 44% trust the police, 39% trust in the courts, while trust in political parties stands at 15%. 24% trust the civil service, compared to the OECD average of 45%.
Share of population with high or moderately high trust in different public institutions and the media, 2023 and 2025
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]?”. Country-specific terms may have been used in the survey implementation for some public institutions. The labels in the figure are used to facilitate cross-country comparison.
Findings from the OECD Trust Survey 2025 indicate that trust gaps are generally largest along political dimensions, especially partisanship and political agency, while gaps linked to socio-economic conditions (such as financial hardship, education, or perceived discrimination) are typically narrower, and differences by age and gender are usually the smallest. In Greece overall, the pattern of which characteristics matter most is in line with the OECD-wide pattern.
In terms of gap size, the divides in Greece are similar than the OECD average for political agency/voice (48 percentage points (p.p.), compared to an OECD gap of 47 p.p.); and larger for financial hardship (27 p.p. compared to OECD 18 p.p.). Trust gaps by education are pronounced: trust in the national government is 14 percentage points higher among people with a post-secondary degree (31%) than among those without an upper secondary education (17%), comparable to the average OECD education trust gap of 14 p.p. Age patterns also align with the OECD average: young people in Greece report less trust (17%) than those aged 50+ (31%). Among women in Greece, the share with high or moderately high trust in the national government is 4 percentage points smaller than among men (compared to OECD 7 p.p.).
Share of population with high or moderately high trust in the national government by population group, 2025
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?.
Perceptions of day-to-day dealings with public institutions in Greece are less positive than the OECD average, with Greece scoring below the OECD average across indicators. This provides a snapshot of how well people feel public services and frontline interactions work in practice (for example, how easy it is to access services, get information, and have issues resolved).
Across OECD countries, people who report more positive day-to-day experiences with government also tend to report higher trust in the national government, particularly those who are more satisfied with administrative services, feel benefit applications are treated fairly, and believe the public sector uses data legitimately.
In Greece, satisfaction with administrative services remained unchanged at 54% (2023 and2025); perceived fairness in benefit applications decreased from 39% (2023) to 36% (2025); and perceived legitimacy of public sector data use decreased from 45% (2023) to 39% (2025). Overall, this indicates some weakening in day-to-day experiences, which, in OECD-wide results, are meaningfully associated with trust.
Share of population who are satisfied with public services or find a positive action in the respective situation likely, OECD and Greece, 2025
Note: The figure presents the unweighted OECD averages and values for Greece 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.
Overall, people in Greece rate decision making on complex policy issues below the OECD average across indicators, pointing to a less favourable public assessment of how well the governmental system handles complex, long-term issues, incorporates citizen input, weighs competing interests, and acts in the public interest.
At the OECD level, when it comes to more complex aspects of governance, trust is most strongly associated with positive perceptions that the government uses evidence in decision-making, that it can balance the interests of different generations, and that people like you have a say in what government does.
In Greece, positive perceptions of the use of evidence decreased from 37% (2023) to 30% (2025); views on balancing intergenerational interests decreased from 28% (2023) to 24% (2025); and political voice remained stable at 21% in 2023 and 2025. Taken together, this points to weakening perceptions in aspects of complex decision-making that, at the OECD level, are strongly associated with trust.
Share of population who are confident in or find a positive action in the respective situation likely, OECD and Greece, 2025
Note: The figure presents the unweighted OECD averages and values for Greece of the share of respondents who choose a response of 6-10 on the 0-10 scale for the above questions.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming embedded in the way governments design, deliver, and manage policies. Understanding how people expect governments to use AI, and the conditions under which they find that use acceptable, is therefore essential for shaping credible strategies and maintaining trust. For the first time, the 2025 OECD Trust Survey gathered evidence on familiarity with AI and public expectations about its potential benefits in government. In Greece, 37% say they understand AI “well enough to explain it to someone else” when asked to rate their familiarity with it.
When asked about future AI use in the public sector, 45% of Greeks believe the government will use AI to provide more tailored services, while 40% think AI will be used to reduce costs. 30% are confident the government will protect personal information when using AI, 35% believe human oversight will be maintained, and 30% think the government will be transparent about how AI is used. Finally, 35% believe the government will ensure fair treatment when AI is deployed in public services. Overall, across the six dimensions, people in Greece have views on the potential use of AI by government agencies that are similar to the OECD average.
Levels of confidence in the potential of government AI use to fulfil the respective expectation, OECD, 2025
Note: The figure shows the OECD averages of responses to the question “Thinking about how government agencies could use AI in the future, how confident are you that government agencies will achieve the following outcomes?” “Confident” corresponds to a response of 6-10 on the 0-10 scale, “neutral” to 5 and “not confident” to 0-4 on the 0-10 scale. The OECD average is calculated as the unweighted average of weighted country averages.
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.
The full book is available in English: OECD (2026), OECD Survey on Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions 2026 Results: Navigating Rising Expectations and New Horizons, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9eb63fec-en.
© OECD 2026
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
This work is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. By using this work, you accept to be bound by the terms of this licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Attribution – you must cite the work.
Translations – you must cite the original work, identify changes to the original and add the following text: In the event of any discrepancy between the original work and the translation, only the text of original work should be considered valid.
Adaptations – you must cite the original work and add the following text: This is an adaptation of an original work by the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed in this adaptation should not be reported as representing the official views of the OECD or of its Member countries.
Third-party material – the licence does not apply to third-party material in the work. If using such material, you are responsible for obtaining permission from the third party and for any claims of infringement.
You must not use the OECD logo, visual identity or cover image without express permission or suggest the OECD endorses your use of the work.
Any dispute arising under this licence shall be settled by arbitration in accordance with the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) Arbitration Rules 2012. The seat of arbitration shall be Paris (France). The number of arbitrators shall be one.