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. Initiated in 2021, the Trust Survey was carried out in 30 OECD countries in October and November 2023, with results representative of their respective adult populations.
OECD Survey on Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions 2024 Results - Country Notes: Estonia
Trust in public institutions
In 2023, 38% of Estonians reported high or moderately high trust in the national government close to the OECD average of 39%.
This number represents a decrease by 9 percentage points since 2021, compared to an average decrease of 2.4 percentage points among the eighteen OECD countries with available data.
Figure 1. Trust in national government, 2023
Share of population who indicate different levels of trust in their national government (on a 0-10 scale), 2023
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 government?”; neutral to option 5 and “low or no” to response options 0-4.
As in most OECD countries, Estonians place more trust in the police (74%), courts and the judicial system (62%) and other people (60%) than in the national government (38%). Trust in the police and the judicial system in Estonia also exceeds the OECD average. Around half of the population reports high or moderately high trust in the national civil service (49%) and local government (46%). The national parliament (27%) and political parties (17%) are the least trusted institutions.
Figure 2. Share of population with high or moderately high trust in different public institutions, other people and media, 2021 and 2023
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]?”; neutral to option 5 and “low or no” to response options 0-4.
Estonians who feel that the current political system doesn’t let people like them have a say tend to trust the national government 56 percentage points less than those who feel they have political voice. This trust gap is larger than the 47 percentage points gap on average across OECD countries.
Estonia is one of the three countries, together with Norway and Iceland, where women are slightly more likely to have high or moderately high trust in the national government (39%) than men do (37%). On average across OECD countries, women trust the national government 7 percentage points less than men do.
The Estonian trust gaps between the old and young people, those with and without financial concerns, those with lower and higher educational attainment are larger than the OECD average.
Figure 3. Share of population with high or moderately high trust in the national government by population group, 2023
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 government?”; neutral to option 5 and “low or no” to response options 0-4.
Perceptions of the public governance drivers of trust
Perceptions of day-to-day interactions with public institutions
For most of the considered measures, Estonians’ satisfaction with day-to-day interactions with public institutions is higher or similar to the OECD average.
A large majority of Estonians (68%) with recent experience with the education system are satisfied with it, compared to 57% on average across the OECD. Moreover, 83% are satisfied with the administrative services they used, an important driver of trust in the civil service, compared to a 66% OECD average. And 78% expect to easily find information on administrative procedures, compared to 67% on average across OECD countries.
Estonians find it slightly more likely than the OECD average that government uses personal data only for legitimate purposes: 54% of people in Estonia find this likely, compared to the OECD average of 52%.
Perceptions of integrity of public employees are low in most countries: Only 32% of Estonians expect that public employees would refuse bribes to speed up service access, lower than the OECD average of 36%. Slightly more than one-third of Estonians (35%) expect that public officials adopt innovative ideas to improve services, below the OECD average of 39%.
Figure 4. Perceptions of day-to-day interactions between the population and public institutions
Share of population who are satisfied with public services or find a positive action in the respective situation likely, OECD and Estonia, 2023
Note: The figure presents the unweighted OECD averages and values for Estonia 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.
Perceptions on decision making on complex policy issues
Estonia performs worse than the OECD average in almost all measures of decision-making on complex policy issues. Moreover, in Estonia and across the OECD, a lower share of people have positive perceptions regarding complex decision-making than about day-to-day interactions with public institutions.
Slightly below half of Estonians (46%) find it likely that government would be ready to protect lives in an emergency, below the 53% average across OECD countries.
Perceptions of government integrity are low in most countries: About one third of Estonians (35%) expect government would refuse requests from corporations that harm public interest, a share that is 5 percentage points higher than the average across OECD countries (30%). At the same time, only one in four (24%) finds it likely that parliament holds government accountable, below the OECD average (38%).
Only 17% of Estonians believe that the political system allows people like them to have a say in what government does. This important driver of trust in the national government is 13 percentage points below the average across OECD countries (30%).
Figure 5. Perceptions of government decision making on complex policy issues
Share of population who are confident in or find a positive action in the respective situation likely, OECD and Estonia, 2023
Note: The figure presents the unweighted OECD averages and values for Estonia of the share of respondents who choose a response of 6-10 on the 0-10 scale for the above questions.
For more information see oe.cd/trust
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.
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