People’s demographic background, socio-economic characteristics and their political attitudes can influence their perceptions of, and trust in public institutions. This chapter illustrates the varying levels of trust in government across different population groups. These groups are defined by age, perceived degree of financial or physical security, educational background and gender, and by their political attitudes, including political partisanship and self-assessed political voice and ability to participate in politics.
OECD Survey on Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean 2025 Results
Abstract
Key findings
Perceived political agency matters for trust. People who feel they have a say in government decisions or are confident in participating in politics are substantially more likely to have high or moderately high trust in the national government. Only 25% of Latin Americans feel that people like them have a say in what government does.
Partisanship influences trust. Trust in the national government is 23 percentage points higher among those who reported voting (or say they would have voted) for a ruling party. This partisan gap extends to administrative institutions, like the civil service and electoral system.
Trust in public institutions is lower among those concerned about finances, security and discrimination. Individuals who feel economically insecure are 15 percentage points less likely to trust government than people who feel more secure. Fear of crime is associated with a nine-point trust gap, and those who identify as part of a discriminated-against group are seven percentage points less likely to trust government.
Demographic characteristics are associated with limited trust gaps. Women are three percentage points less likely to trust the national government than men are, on average, and young people (18–29) are four percentage points less trusting than older adults (50+).
Trends in trust gaps are largely consistent across LAC and the OECD. People’s sense of political voice and partisanship have a greater influence on trust than socio-economic and demographic traits. Yet trust gaps associated with demographic characteristics are smaller in LAC than across the OECD, on average.
How can public institutions improve and foster trust?
Promote policies that strengthen a sense of political agency to boost trust in public institutions, for example by encouraging engagement in politics and in policy feedback.
Strengthen efforts to promote economic security across groups. Policies designed to mitigate economic vulnerability and discrimination can help to close the trust gap. This includes strengthening economic development initiatives, reinforcing efforts to formalise workers, and improving the capacity of social protection systems (OECD, 2025[1]; OECD et al., 2024[2]).
Improve strategies to tackle crime and security concerns. This includes initiatives to implement broad security reforms and policies that enhance the transparency and accountability of security institutions (Calderon and Hernandez-Figueroa, 2013[3]; Malone and Dammert, 2021[4]).
Trust varies across institutions and population groups. In representative democracies, managing the diverse interests of a pluralistic society with a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds and political attitudes can be a challenge. Governments frequently find it difficult to interact with and balance the diverse requirements, interests, and viewpoints of their constituents. For example, individuals who belong to the most vulnerable population groups are often not only more dependent on public institutions but also often less engaged in public and political activities. Examining public trust across different institutions and population groups provides insight into how effectively governments in Latin America and the Caribbean are responding to diverse needs and expectations (OECD, 2022[5]; OECD, 2024[6]).
This chapter presents the share of people reporting high or moderately high trust, primarily in the national government, across different population groups. These groups are defined by their socio-economic and demographic characteristics, their partisan affiliation, and their perceptions of political agency. The differences in trust levels across population groups are called 'trust gaps' throughout the chapter.
2.1.1. People’s sense of political agency and partisanship have a greater influence on trust than socio-economic or demographic characteristics
A comparison of the size of ”trust gaps” associated with different group characteristics reveals that people’s sense of “having a say” in what governments do, and feeling confident about participating in politics, are more strongly associated with differences in public trust than any socio-economic or demographic characteristics are (Figure 2.1). This finding confirms the well-established positive link between trust in government and the feeling of political agency that has been found in OECD countries (OECD, 2024[6]; OECD, 2022[5]). Moreover, in the region, trust gaps associated with demographic characteristics are even smaller than on average across the OECD.
Share of population with high or moderately high trust in the national government by level of respondents’ socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, partisanship and political agency, 2023 and 2025
Note: The figure presents how trust in the national government varies across different population sub-groups. It highlights differences between individuals who believe they have a say in what the government does compared to those who do not (political agency gap); between those who voted for a party in power and those who did not (partisan gap); and between individuals who are not concerned about their financial well-being and those who are (financial concern gap). It also compares trust levels between individuals with tertiary education and those without (education gap), between men and women (gender gap), and between older respondents (50 years and above) and younger respondents (18–29 years old) (age gap). Trust in the government is measured on a 0 to 10 scale, where 6 to 10 correspond to expressing moderately high to high trust in the government. Voted for a party in power is measured as people that have voted for the party currently in power or would vote for the party currently in power. Being concerned about financial well-being is measured on a 0 to 4 scale, where 3 to 4 correspond to people that are concerned about their financial wellbeing. “OECD” presents the unweighted average across 30 OECD including the four LAC OECD countries in 2023. “LAC” presents the unweighted average across the ten LAC countries, gathered in 2023 for the OECD LAC countries and in 2025 for the non-OECD LAC countries.
Source: 2023 OECD Trust Survey, 2025 OECD Trust Survey in LAC.
Trust in government is strongly tied to people’s sense of political voice (Figure 2.2). Nearly seven in ten respondents (66%) express high to moderately high trust in government among those Latin Americans who feel that people like them have a say in what government does. In contrast, the share of respondents who report trusting their national government drops sharply to approximately 21% among those who feel they lack political voice. This political agency gap remains consistently large in all surveyed countries, both in LAC and across the OECD. These findings point to an important challenge for efforts to build trust in institutions, in particular when considering that only a quarter (25%) in LAC believe they can influence government actions.
Share of population with high or moderately high trust in the national government, sorted by feeling they have a say in what the government does (blue) and confidence to participate in politics (yellow), 2023 and 2025
Note: The figure presents the within-country distributions of responses 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?” by respondents’ feeling of having a say (blue) and confidence to participate in politics (yellow). Shown here is the proportion of respondents that have “high or moderately high trust” based on the aggregation of responses from 6-10 on the 0-10 response scale, grouped by whether people feel they have a say (blue): “How much would you say the political system in [COUNTRY]” allows people like you to have a say in what the government does?” and feel confident to be able to participate in politics (yellow): “How confident are you in your own ability to participate in politics?”. “OECD” and “LAC” presents the unweighted average across countries. “OECD” presents the unweighted average across 30 OECD including the four LAC OECD countries in 2023. “LAC” presents the unweighted average across the ten LAC countries, gathered in 2023 for the OECD LAC countries and in 2025 for the non-OECD LAC countries.
Source: 2023 OECD Trust Survey, 2025 OECD Trust Survey in LAC.
Confidence in participating in politics is significantly correlated with public trust as well. 45% of people who are confident in their ability to participate in politics report high or moderately high trust in their national government (Figure 2.2), compared to 23% for those who do not feel confident about participating in politics. This gap varies significantly across countries. In Peru, for example, it is relatively small: 27% of individuals who feel confident participating in politics report high or moderately high trust in their national government, compared to 12% among those who do not feel confident – a 15-percentage point gap. Other countries with relatively modest gaps include Costa Rica, Guatemala and Paraguay. In Brazil, in contrast, the gap is 35 percentage points.
Partisanship also plays a significant role in shaping trust in government around the world.1 Indeed, partisan alignment and political preferences can shape people's perceptions of government regardless of how governments perform (Hetherington and Rudolph, 2017[7]). Unsurprisingly, nearly one in two Latin Americans (47%) who indicate that they have (or would have) voted for the governing party report high or moderately high trust in the national government, compared to a quarter (24%) who did not (Figure 2.3). This reflects a partisanship gap of 23 percentage points across LAC countries, below the gap observed in OECD countries (27 percentage points).
Whilst partisanship-related gaps may be expected in perceptions of the national government or other institutions of a political nature, they should be expected less for institutions that should be non-partisan. Yet partisan trust gaps exist with respect to all public institutions, though they are substantially smaller than the gap observed for trust in the national government.
Share of respondents that express moderately high to high trust into public institutions by whether they voted for a party in government or not, 2023 and 2025
Note: The figure presents the responses 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” by respondents’ political alignment. Shown here is the proportion of respondents that have “high or moderately high trust” based on the aggregation of responses from 6-10 on the 0-10 response scale, grouped by whether people voted (or would have) voted for the government in power: “Is the party you voted for in the last national election on [DATE] currently part of the government?” or “Is the party you would have most likely voted for in the last national election on [DATE] currently part of the government?”. “OECD” presents the unweighted average across 30 OECD including the four LAC OECD countries in 2023. New Zealand was excluded from the calculation as the survey question on voting for the current government was not included there. “LAC” presents the unweighted average across the ten LAC countries, gathered in 2023 for the OECD LAC countries and in 2025 for the non-OECD LAC countries. The LAC average for trust in the electoral system only includes the six non-OECD countries and Chile.
Source: 2023 OECD Trust Survey, 2025 OECD Trust Survey in LAC
The size of the partisan trust gaps differs from institution to institution (Figure 2.3). Differences in trust in police (six percentage points) and in the armed forces (ten percentage points) are relatively moderate. Somewhat surprisingly, the average share who trust in the national legislature also only varies by nine percentage points between those who (would have) voted for the national government and those who did not. Trust gaps in the local (12 percentage points) and national civil service (13 percentage points) are somewhat more pronounced.
The substantial partisan gap for trust in the electoral system is particularly concerning, as it exists in a context of overall low trust in electoral systems and suggests that some people whose preferred party or candidate did not win the election might question the legitimacy of broader democratic procedures. Among those voting for the ruling party, just over half (51%) report high or moderately high trust in the electoral system, compared to only 30% those who did not – a gap of 20 percentage points.
2.1.2. Trust in public institutions is lower among those concerned about finances, crime and discrimination
Socio-economic vulnerability is also negatively associated with trust in public institutions. People who report economic insecurity (Figure 2.4), feel worried about crime (Figure 2.5), or feel they belong to a group that is discriminated against (Figure 2.6) tend to express lower levels of trust in the national government than those who do not.
Eight in ten (82%) Latin Americans report concerns about their financial situation, with significant implications for public trust. Figure 2.4 shows that among respondents who feel economically insecure, only 33% trust the government, compared to 48% among those without such concerns. This corresponds to a trust gap of 15 percentage points, which is slightly below to the average OECD trust gap between these two groups (17 percentage points). Differences vary by country. In Mexico, 52% of individuals who express financial and economic well-being concerns2 report high or moderately high trust in government, compared to 60% of people who are not economically insecure - a relatively narrow gap of eight percentage points. In contrast, in Chile, economically insecure respondents trust the government 25 percentage points less than those who feel more secure.
Share of population reporting high or moderately high trust in the national government by financial concerns and economic prospects, 2023 and 2025
Note: The figure presents the within-country distributions of responses 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?” Shown here is the proportion of respondents that have “high or moderately high trust” based on the aggregation of responses from 6-10 on the 0-10 response scale, grouped by whether respondents mentioned 3 (some concerned) and 4 (very concerned) to the question “In general, thinking about the next year or two, how concerned are you about your household’s finances and overall economic well-being?”, or grouped by whether respondents mentioned 1 (much better) or 2 (little) better on a 1 to 5 response scale to the question “Thinking about your current economic situation and future prospects, do you think you will do better, worse, or about the same as your parents have?”. “OECD” presents the unweighted average across 30 OECD, including the four LAC OECD countries in 2023. “LAC” presents the unweighted average across the ten LAC countries, gathered in 2023 for the OECD LAC countries and in 2025 for the non-OECD LAC countries.
Source: 2023 OECD Trust Survey, 2025 OECD Trust Survey in LAC.
Perceptions of economic security are influenced by within-household perceptions over time, including across generations, and by how people assess their economic position relative to others (OECD, 2024[8]; OECD, 2022[5]). A key comparison is whether individuals feel that they are better off than their parents. In LAC countries, trust in the national government is higher among those who perceive upward mobility: 37% of respondents who believe they are better off than their parents report high or moderately high trust in government, compared to a just 25% among those who do not expect to be better off.
Other social conditions also matter for public trust. Concerns about physical security are closely associated with lower levels of trust. This is of particular relevance in LAC, where nearly nine in ten people (89%) report being always, frequently or occasionally worried about becoming a victim of a crime, and a majority identify crime and violence among the top three concerns facing their country (see Chapter 1). On average, only 32% of Latin Americans who are worried about becoming the victim of a crime report high or moderately high trust in the national government, compared to 41% of those who are not worried, which represents a nine-percentage-point gap. The security concern gap, however, varies significantly across countries. It is particularly large in Chile (22 percentage points), and small in Guatemala (two percentage points).3
Share of population reporting high or moderately high trust in the national government by physical security concerns, 2023 and 2025
Note: The figure presents the within-country distributions of responses 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?” Shown here is the proportion of respondents that have “high or moderately high trust” based on the aggregation of response from 6-10 on the 0-10 response scale, grouped by whether respondents mentioned 1 (always) and 2 (frequently), and 3 (occasionally) to the question “How often, if at all, do you worry about becoming a victim of violent crime?”. This question was asked in Chile during the OECD Trust Survey in 2023 and in all non-OECD LAC countries during the OECD Trust Survey in 2025. “LAC” presents the unweighted average across Chile, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru and Paraguay. Source: 2023 OECD Trust Survey, 2025 OECD Trust Survey in LAC
People who identify as belonging to a group that is discriminated against4 also report lower trust in government. Those who identify as members of a discriminated-against group (20% of respondents) report lower levels of trust in the national government (31%) than respondents who do not (38%). A gap in trust between these two groups likewise exists for the civil service. These results are perhaps unsurprising, as individuals who experience discrimination may feel marginalised from political processes and may perceive state institutions as less responsive or accessible (OECD, 2025[9]; OECD, 2020[10]; Tyrberg, 2023[11]). There is, however, considerable variation across countries. In Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico, the levels of trust in the government are relatively similar between those who feel discriminated against to those who do not (Figure 2.6).
Proportion of respondents expressing high or moderately high trust in the government, by feeling of belonging to a discriminated group, 2023 and 2025
Note: The figure presents the within-country distributions of responses to the questions “On a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is not at all and 10 is completely, in general how much do you trust the national government?” by respondents’ perceptions of belonging to a discriminated group. Shown here is the proportion of respondents that have “high or moderately high trust” based on the aggregation of responses from 6-10 on the 0-10 response scale, grouped by whether respondents stated whether they feel they belong to a discriminated group: ‘’Would you describe yourself as being a member of a group that is discriminated against in [COUNTRY]?’’. “OECD” presents the unweighted average across 30 OECD including the four LAC OECD countries in 2023. “LAC” presents the unweighted average across the ten LAC countries, gathered in 2023 for the OECD LAC countries and in 2025 for the non-OECD LAC countries.
Source: 2023 OECD Trust Survey, 2025 OECD Trust Survey in LAC.
2.1.3. Women and younger people place less trust in government
Gender and age can also influence expectations of and experiences with public institutions, with implications for trust (OECD, 2022[5]; OECD, 2024[6]), but in LAC, differences in trust associated with these demographic characteristics are modest. Women and younger people report lower levels of trust, on average, in the national government compared to men and older people. However, gender and age-related differences in LAC are less pronounced than trust gaps associated with political agency, partisanship, or economic insecurity.
Across LAC countries, 37% of men trust the national government, compared to 34% of women (Figure 2.7). The trust gap by gender is more pronounced in some countries, such as Colombia (37% for men versus 27% for women) and Mexico (57% versus 51%), while in the Dominican Republic there is no trust gap between men and women. In Brazil and Ecuador, contrary to the LAC and OECD averages, the proportion of women with high or moderately high trust in the national government is higher than the proportion of men. The average three-point difference by gender is narrower than the gap across OECD countries (seven percentage points). The small gender trust gap is also valid for other institutions, such as the civil service or local government.
Share of population with high or moderately high trust in the national government by gender, 2023 and 2025
Note: The figure represents the within-country distributions of responses 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?” by respondents’ gender. Shown here is the proportion of respondents that have “high or moderately high trust” based on the aggregation of responses from 6-10 on the 0-10 response scale, grouped by respondents’ self-identified gender. “OECD” presents the unweighted average across 30 OECD including the four LAC OECD countries in 2023. “LAC” presents the unweighted average across the ten LAC countries, gathered in 2023 for the OECD LAC countries and in 2025 for the non-OECD LAC countries.
Source: 2023 OECD Trust Survey, 2025 OECD Trust Survey in LAC
Generational differences can also shape trust in government. Younger people tend to report lower trust than older age groups, but are in turn more optimistic about their future. In LAC countries, 37% of older people (aged 50 and above) report high or moderately high trust in the national government, compared to 33% among those aged 18-29 (Figure 2.8). This cross-generational trust gap of four percentage points in LAC is below the OECD average gap of seven percentage points. The largest age gap is found in Peru and the Dominican Republic, at 16 and 15 percentage points, respectively.
Young people in LAC countries tend to be more optimistic about the future. Nearly half (47%) of respondents aged 18–29 express confidence that the government can adequately balance the interests of current and future generations, compared to 43% among those aged 50 and above. In contrast, on average, perceptions in OECD countries are evenly distributed across generations, with 38% of older and 37% of younger people expressing confidence in the government's ability to balance interests across generations.
Share of population with high or moderately high trust in government and confidence that the government would adequately balance interests of current and future generations by age group, 2023 and 2025
Note: The figure shows the within-country distributions of responses to two questions: (1) “On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 means not at all and 10 means completely, how much do you trust the national government?” and (2) “On a scale of 0 to 10, how confident are you that the national government adequately balances the interests of current and future generations?” Displayed are the proportions of respondents reporting “high or moderately high trust” and “confidence in government balancing intergenerational interests,” defined as aggregate responses in the 6 to 10 range. Results are shown separately for two age groups: respondents aged 18–29 and those aged 50 and older. “OECD” presents the unweighted average across 30 OECD including the four LAC OECD countries in 2023. “LAC” presents the unweighted average across the ten LAC countries, gathered in 2023 for the OECD LAC countries and in 2025 for the non-OECD LAC countries.
Source: 2023 OECD Trust Survey, 2025 OECD Trust Survey in LAC.
2.1.4. Recent adverse experiences were found to have little impact on trust, even though results vary by country
In addition to socio-economic characteristics, the literature also highlights that recent negative experiences, including loss of employment, serious illnesses and exposure to natural disasters, can affect institutional trust (Bellows and Miguel, 2009[12]; Devine et al., 2021[13]). Yet, data from the OECD Trust Survey in LAC reveal that trust levels are close between those who report having experienced at least one among seven5 listed adverse situations in the past year, compared to those who have not. 33% of individuals from households affected by an adverse event report high or moderately high trust in the national government, compared to 35% among those without such experiences. Nevertheless, there is some variation across countries. In Paraguay, Peru, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic, the gap is quite small. In contrast, in Brazil and Ecuador, the share who trust the national government is six to eight percentage points lower among respondents from households that have faced negative events compared to those without such experiences.
References
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← 1. The OECD Trust Survey measures partisanship by asking respondents whether the party they voted or would have voted for in national elections is currently in power.
← 2. To note, the Trust Survey does not measure experiences of economic security (for example with income data), but perceptions of economic security reported by respondents (see note to Figure 2.6). For simplicity, this report refers to those who report feeling economic insecurity as economically insecure.
← 3. Data concerning people’s worries about becoming a victim of crime are only available for Brazil, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay, and Peru.
← 4. To note, the Trust Survey does not measure actual experiences of discrimination (for example administrative data) but rather measures perceptions of discrimination by asking “Would you describe yourself as being a member of a group that is discriminated against in [COUNTRY]?. For simplicity, this report refers to these respondents as “feeling discrimination” or “discriminated against”.
← 5. To note, the OECD Trust Survey in LAC measures the experience of adverse events by asking “In the last 12 months, was your household affected by any of the following issues? 1. Loss of job of a household member; 2. Bankruptcy of the family business; 3. Serious illness, death or accident of a household member; 4. Abandonment of the head of household; 5. Criminal offence (robbery, assault, etc.); 6. Natural disasters (drought, storm, plague, flood, etc.); 7. Victim of acts of corruption.”