Level of trust, fairness and helpfulness

Data on how trustworthy, fair and helpful people in the UK think other people are.

Summary main findings

Between 2002 and 2018:

on a scale of 0 to 10, people’s average levels of trust in other people went up from 5.1 to 5.2 (with a score of 10 meaning “most people can be trusted”)
people’s average perception of fairness went up from 5.5 to 5.7 (with 10 meaning “most people try to be fair”)
people’s average perception of helpfulness went up from 5.4 to 5.8 (with 10 meaning “people mostly try to be helpful”)

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People’s average levels of trust, perceived fairness and helpfulness (UK, 2002 to 2018)
Year	Trust	Fairness	Helpfulness
2018	5.2	5.7	5.8
2016	5.3	5.7	5.8
2014	5.4	5.8	5.9
2012	5.4	5.8	5.8
2010	5.4	5.6	5.8
2008	5.3	5.7	5.6
2006	5.4	5.8	5.7
2004	5.1	5.6	5.7
2002	5.1	5.5	5.4

For the full download file, see Download the data.

European Social Survey, data for the UK

2002 to 2018

The data shows people’s median (average) levels of trust and perceptions of fairness and helpfulness in the UK between 2002 and 2018.

Trust was measured on a scale of 0 (meaning "you can't be too careful") to 10 (meaning "most people can be trusted").

Fairness was measured on a scale of 0 ("most people try to take advantage of me") to 10 ("most people try to be fair").

Helpfulness was measured on a scale of 0 ("people mostly look out for themselves") to 10 ("people mostly try to be helpful").

Figures are rounded to 1 decimal place.

Confidence intervals are used for each year covered by the data.

Survey data

This file contains the following variables: