Despite a global downtrend in key trust measurements, Saudi citizens scored an 87% in trust in government in the 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer to lead the globe and surpass Saudi Arabia’s rating of 86% last year.
Conducted by independent US-based communications and marketing firm Edelman, The Edelman Trust Barometer annual study measures trust across key institutions—government, business, media, and NGOs—in various countries.
The 2025 Trust Barometer survey collected data from over 33,000 respondents across 28 countries, with around 1,150 participants from each nation. Conducted between Oct.25 and Nov. 16, the survey tracked trends in trust, institutional performance, societal issues, and future outlook.
In its January 22 press release, Edelman notes:
“The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals that economic fears have metastasized into grievance, with six in 10 respondents reporting moderate to high sense of grievance. This is defined by a belief that government and business harm them and serve narrow interests, and ultimately the wealthy benefit while regular people struggle. Fear of experiencing discrimination has surged 10 points to a record high of 63 percent, spanning the majority across all genders, ages, and income levels. The largest jump (14 points) was seen among whites in the U.S. ”
“Grievance stems from four key factors. First is lack of hope for the next generation – belief that things in their country will be better than today for the next generation is at just 36 percent, with severe lows in every Western democracy including France (9 percent), the UK (17 percent), and the U.S. (30 percent). Second is the mass-class trust divide – low-income respondents (48 percent) trust institutions 13 points less than those with high-income (61 percent). Third is a global unprecedented lack of faith in institutional leaders – an average of 69 percent of respondents worry government officials, business leaders and journalists deliberately mislead them, up 11 points since 2021. Lastly, confusion over credible information – 63 percent say it’s becoming harder to tell if news was produced by a respectable source or from attempted deception.”
Saudi Arabia, however, has bucked this trend, leading the globe in government trust for the past two years. In addition to the top score in the trust in government metric, Saudi Arabia also ranked first globally in future outlook, with 69% of citizens confident that the next generation will enjoy a better quality of life. A marked contrast to the under-50% optimism found in many other nations.
According to the survey, China ranked second with 83 percent, a two-point decrease from 2024. The UAE followed closely in third with 82 percent, also down by two points. India saw a positive shift, gaining three points to reach 79 percent, securing fourth place, while Singapore held steady in fifth with 77 percent.
Other key findings from the 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer include:
Lack of Trust in Top Economies: Five of the largest 10 global economies are among the least trusting nations on the Trust Index: Japan (the least trusting at 37), Germany (41), UK (43), U.S. (47) and France (48).
Developing Nations More Trusting: China (77), Indonesia (76), India (75) and the UAE (72) once again sit atop the Trust Index as the most trusting nations surveyed.
Trust Remains Local: Despite a 3-point drop to 75 percent trust among employees, ‘my employer’ remains the most trusted institution.
Job Insecurity Accelerates: Fears of job insecurity due to the impacts of globalization all increased in the last year, including causes such as international trade conflicts (with 62 percent of employees worried, up 5 points), foreign competitors (59 percent, up 6 points), offshoring (54 percent, up 6 points); a looming recession (63 percent, up 3 points); automation (58 percent, up 5 points); and out of date skills (58 percent, up 2 points).
The Wealthy Seen as The Problem: A majority believe they avoid paying their fair share of taxes (67 percent), and 65 percent blame their selfishness for many of our problems.
