One of nine capability dimensions
Trust
How much cooperation is possible beyond immediate personal networks?
This page puts the country comparison, indicator registry and documented cases together. It shows how much of the capability the current data can see.
52 countries in the frame8 indicators in the registry2 indicators with data36 countries with a score
<iframe src="https://ncb-envisioning.vercel.app/embed/compare/BRA/trust" title="Trust country comparison" loading="lazy" width="100%" height="300" style="border:0" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin"></iframe>All countries use the same frame
The table opens alphabetically. Sort by score, confidence, coverage or trend. Scores need two observed indicators; trends use indicators observed at both ends.
Scores use one 0 to 100 scale for all countries. Each dot is a country. The box covers the middle half of the field, and the line is the median. Hollow dots have thin evidence.
| Argentina | 29.2 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Australia | 75.2 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Bolivia | 36.7 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Brazil | 26.9 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Canada | 54.0 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Chile | 42.9 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| China | 83.2 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Colombia | 6.4 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Costa Rica | not measured | 0.07 | 1 of 8 | no trend |
| Cuba | not measured | 0.00 | 0 of 8 | no trend |
| Dominican Republic | not measured | 0.07 | 1 of 8 | no trend |
| Ecuador | 37.2 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| El Salvador | not measured | 0.07 | 1 of 8 | no trend |
| Estonia | 61.8 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Ethiopia | 41.7 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Finland | 87.5 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| France | 56.2 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Germany | not measured | 0.07 | 1 of 8 | no trend |
| Guatemala | 12.4 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Haiti | not measured | 0.07 | 1 of 8 | no trend |
| Honduras | not measured | 0.07 | 1 of 8 | no trend |
| India | 9.9 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Indonesia | 41.0 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Ireland | not measured | 0.07 | 1 of 8 | no trend |
| Israel | not measured | 0.07 | 1 of 8 | no trend |
| Japan | 65.3 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Kenya | 42.4 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Malaysia | 51.8 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Mexico | 48.0 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Netherlands | not measured | 0.07 | 1 of 8 | no trend |
| Nicaragua | 37.3 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Nigeria | 47.7 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Panama | not measured | 0.07 | 1 of 8 | no trend |
| Paraguay | not measured | 0.07 | 1 of 8 | no trend |
| Peru | 37.7 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Philippines | 19.7 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Poland | 45.2 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Rwanda | not measured | 0.07 | 1 of 8 | no trend |
| Singapore | 73.5 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| South Africa | not measured | 0.07 | 1 of 8 | no trend |
| South Korea | 67.4 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Spain | 65.2 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Sweden | 83.2 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Switzerland | 75.3 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Thailand | 59.2 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Turkey | 39.7 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| United Arab Emirates | not measured | 0.07 | 1 of 8 | no trend |
| United Kingdom | not measured | 0.07 | 1 of 8 | no trend |
| United States | 64.6 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Uruguay | 36.1 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Venezuela | 36.1 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
| Vietnam | 59.1 | 0.16 | 2 of 8 | no trend |
0 to 100 is a position inside the frame every country builds together. Zero is the weakest on a dimension and 100 is the strongest. A score of 10 puts a country near the floor of that frame. It does not mean 10 percent of a capability.
Trust indicators
8 indicators define this capability. Gaps and retired rows remain because they lower confidence. Click a heading to sort.
- Cdirect capability measure Measures the thing itself.
- Icapability input Measures something that supports the capability.
- Odownstream outcome Measures a result that usually follows from the capability.
- Pperception proxy Records what people or experts say, not what they did.
Trust
| Note | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Control of corruptionretired | P | z-score -2.5 to 2.5 | higher is better | World Bank | 0.55 | Retired 2026-08-26. A WGI perception composite. It measures reputation for corruption, which is not the same thing as corruption, and it tracks income closely. Prosecution and audit records are the observable replacement and are a declared gap. See D23 and A4. |
| Cooperation beyond the in-groupno dataset | P | % expressing trust | higher is better | World Values Survey | 0.15 | The distinction that makes this dimension worth measuring. Same licensing obstacle as generalised trust. |
| Court case clearance rateno dataset | O | % of incoming cases | higher is better | CEPEJ / OECD / national court statistics | 0.20 | Whether a court finishes what it starts, counted from case records rather than asked in a survey. D23 named it as the observable replacement for the two retired WGI composites and it has stayed unfilled since. CEPEJ publishes it for Council of Europe members and OECD for its own members, so no single publisher reaches this country set, and a harmonised series needs the project second source adapter. See D57. |
| Generalised interpersonal trust | P | % agreeing | higher is better | Joint EVS/WVS | 0.25 | Share answering that most people can be trusted in the official Joint EVS/WVS 2017-2022 results table, release 5.0.0. The adapter uses the publisher-weighted country results, emits only countries with one survey row, and holds countries with separate EVS and WVS samples until the respondent-level weights can be pooled reproducibly. See D57 and D64. |
| Intentional homicide rateretired | O | per 100,000 people | lower is better | World Bank | 0.35 | Added 2026-08-26 by D23 as the observable replacement for two retired WGI perception composites, and retired 2026-08-27 by D44 when the diagnostic built in D42 measured what it was doing. It raised this dimension's correlation with log GDP per capita by 0.288, from 0.096 to 0.385, the largest single wealth contribution anywhere in the model. It was added to fix wealth contamination and it was the wealth contamination. The dataset is sound and the objection is to what it measures here: homicide is driven heavily by organised crime, a society can be physically safe while trusting very little, and across this country set the variation it carries is mostly income. Behavioural trust measures remain a gap. |
| Rule of lawretired | P | z-score -2.5 to 2.5 | higher is better | World Bank | 0.55 | Retired 2026-08-26. A WGI perception composite correlating with control of corruption above 0.95 and with log GDP per capita at 0.83. Court throughput and case clearance rates are the observable replacement and are a declared gap. See D23 and A4. |
| Time to enforce a contract | C | days | lower is better | World Bank | 0.20 | Confidence in contracts, measured as court throughput rather than opinion. Frozen at 2019. |
| Trust in public institutionsno dataset | P | % expressing confidence | higher is better | OECD Trust Survey / WVS | 0.20 | The OECD survey covers members only. Mixing it with WVS items for India and South Africa would break comparability. |
One series is published beside the score and stays out of it
A behavioral check measures something real about this capability and fails the test for scoring it. The country pages carry its value.
Bribery incidenceWorld Bank (IC.FRM.BRIB.ZS), 49 of 52 countries, latest 2025
Firms asked for at least one bribe payment across six public transactions covering utilities, permits, licences and taxes.
Experience rather than reputation: the question asks whether the responding firm was itself asked, so it is not the perception composite D23 retired. It covers 49 of 52 countries and 44 of them at 2023 or later. It is not scored because it carries income. On a rank-normalised estimate it correlates with log GDP per capita at about 0.66 alone and takes the two-indicator Trust dimension to about 0.53, against 0.14 for contract enforcement days by itself, which is a larger wealth contribution than the one D44 retired an indicator over. Read it beside the score, not as the score.
Documented deliveries add context to the data
These records describe a country doing something this capability should capture. They stay outside the score because one case is not a comparable series.
Evidence for missing indicators
Each record describes a case the indicators above cannot see. It does not affect the score or confidence because one case is not comparable across countries. A gap can become an indicator when a comparable series covers at least two countries.
Cadastro Único, the unified social registrylinked to Trust in public institutions, started 2001, still operating
Since 2001, Cadastro Único has identified and characterized low-income families across Brazil and has become the entry point for more than 40 federal, state and municipal social programmes.
40 programmes, social programmes using the registry, 2026. Ministry of Development and Social Assistance, Cadastro Único, retrieved 2026-08-29.
How it worked: One shared identity and needs record lets multiple programmes see the same household, reducing the need for each programme to build its own eligibility system and making the state more legible to people it serves.
Limits: A registry and its programme count show administrative reach, not whether citizens trust the state or whether benefits arrive accurately and on time. The source is the ministry responsible for the registry, and coverage depends on families keeping their records current.
Portal da Transparência, the federal open-books systemlinked to Trust in public institutions, started 2004, still operating
Launched in 2004, Portal da Transparência has spent 20 years publishing federal revenue, expenditure, personnel and transfer information so citizens can inspect how public money is used.
20 years, years since launch, 2024. Controladoria-Geral da União, Portal da Transparência, retrieved 2026-08-29.
How it worked: The government turns its own administrative records into a public interface, so oversight can begin with the same transaction detail that the bureaucracy uses to execute and audit spending.
Limits: Publication creates the possibility of scrutiny, not evidence that people use the data or trust the institutions being scrutinized. The portal mainly covers federal government execution and excludes some state-owned and non-federal activity.
Read how the benchmark turns an indicator into a score on the method page. The limits page records where this capability is still poorly observed.