Scottish Household Survey 2021 - telephone survey: key findings

11. Trust in institutions

Respondents were asked to what extent they trusted a series of public institutions.

Overall, levels of trust had dropped significantly for all institutions since 2020, except the Civil Service. This may reflect an adjustment of public attitudes after particularly high levels of public trust in public institutions during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The institutions that saw the biggest fall in the percentage of people who said they trusted them were the Education System (down by 9 percentage points) and the Health System (down by 7 percentage points) (Tables 11.23 and 11.30).

Nevertheless, 86% of respondents trusted the Health System, making it the institution that they were most likely to express trust in, followed by the Police (84%) (Tables 11.30 and 11.37).

64% of respondents reported that they trust Local Government, and 65% said they trusted the Civil Service, making them the public institutions that they were least likely to express trust in (Tables 11.9 and 11.16).

The institutions that respondents were most likely to express distrust in were the Scottish Government (25%) and Local Government (27%) (Tables 11.2 and 11.9).

Care must be taken when making comparisons between institutions, because the percentage of respondents who said they didn't know or were not sure whether they trust an institution varies considerably. For example, 22% of respondents said they didn't know whether they trusted the Civil Service compared, with only 2% of adults for the Health System (Table 11.1).

Trust and gender

For most institutions, men or women expressed similar overall levels of trust. Men were more likely than women to express trust in the Health System (88% of men compared with 85% of women), while women were more likely to say they trusted the Police (85% of women compared with 83% of men) (Tables 11.32 and 11.39).

Trust and age

Trust in institutions varied by age, with adults aged 16 to 24 being more likely than adults aged 75 or over to express trust in the Education System (78% compared with 48%) (Table 11.24); the Scottish Government (80% compared with 52%) (Table 11.3); Local Government (69% compared with 60%) (Table 11.10); and the Health System (92% compared with 82%) (Table 11.31).

Trust and disability

Disabled people were less likely than non-disabled people to express trust in public institutions. This difference was statistically significant for all of the institutions in the survey. The highest level of distrust was towards Local Government, both for disabled people (33%) and non-disabled people (25%) (Table 11.13).

Trust and ethnicity

The institution which adults from a 'White: Scottish' ethnic group trusted most was the Health System (86% trust it) (Table 11.33) and the institution which they distrusted the most was Local Government (29% distrust it) (Table 11.12).

Adults from a Minority ethnic group also had the highest level of trust for the Health System (89% trust it) (Table 11.33). Their highest level of distrust was recorded for Local Government (16% distrust it) (Table 11.12), and the Justice System (16% distrust it) (Table 11.47).

Trust and urban rural classification

Adults in large urban areas trusted the Scottish Government more than adults in remote rural areas (74% versus 69%) (Table 11.8). At the same time, adults in remote rural areas trusted Local Government more than adults in large urban areas (68% versus 63%) (Table 11.15).

These patterns of trust were also reflected in the levels of distrust for these institutions. Adults from remote rural areas distrusted the Scottish Government significantly more than those in large urban areas (27% versus 21%) (Table 11.8), and adults from large urban areas distrusted Local Government significantly more than those in remote rural areas (27% versus 23%) (Table 11.15).

Trust and deprivation

People living in the most deprived areas, as measured by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD), were generally less likely to express trust in public institutions than people living in the areas of least deprivation. Trust in public institutions was significantly lower in the most deprived areas, for all institutions except the Scottish Government, compared with the areas of least deprived areas The Justice System was the institution for which there was the greatest difference in trust between people living in the 20% of most deprived areas compared with those in the 20% least deprived areas (56% versus 77%) (Table 11.49).