Level of trust, fairness and helpfulness
Published:
18 December 2025
Updated:
28 January 2026
see all updates
Data on how trustworthy, fair and helpful people in the UK think other people are.
Summary main findings
Levels of trust, and perceptions of fairness and helpfulness went up slightly from 2002 to 2023.
Levels of trust were generally lower than perceptions of fairness and helpfulness.
Between 2002 and 2023, on a scale of 0 to 10:
- people’s average level of trust in others went up from 5.0 to 5.4 – 10 means ‘most people can be trusted’
- people’s average perception of fairness went up from 5.5 to 5.9 – 10 means ‘most people try to be fair’
- people’s average perception of helpfulness went up from 5.4 to 6 – 10 means ‘most people try to be helpful’
By year
Visualisation
People’s average levels of trust, perceived fairness and helpfulness (UK, 2002 to 2023)
Click or tap on legend items to toggle visibility
Data
| Year | Fairness | Helpfulness | Trust |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 5.9 | 6.0 | 5.4 |
| 2020 | 5.9 | 5.9 | 5.4 |
| 2018 | 5.7 | 5.8 | 5.2 |
| 2016 | 5.7 | 5.8 | 5.3 |
| 2014 | 5.8 | 5.9 | 5.4 |
| 2012 | 5.8 | 5.8 | 5.4 |
| 2010 | 5.6 | 5.8 | 5.4 |
| 2008 | 5.7 | 5.6 | 5.3 |
| 2006 | 5.8 | 5.7 | 5.4 |
| 2004 | 5.5 | 5.7 | 5.1 |
| 2002 | 5.5 | 5.4 | 5.0 |
Download
For the full download file, see Download the data.
About the data
Data source
European Social Survey (ESS) – data for the UK
Time period
2002 to 2023
Geographic area
UK
What the data measures
The data shows people’s mean (average) levels of trust and perceptions of fairness and helpfulness in the UK between 2002 and 2023.
Trust was measured on a scale of 0 (meaning ‘you can't be too careful’) to 10 (‘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.
Things you need to know
ESS Survey rounds 1 to 10 were published every 2 years, from 2002 to 2010. Survey round 11 was published after 3 years, in 2023.
Confidence intervals are used for each year covered by the data.
Type of data
Survey data
Full report
Read more in State of the Nation 2025 on GOV.UK.
Download the data
Download full dataset (CSV, 6KB)
This file contains the following variables:
- Measure code
- Measure title
- Chart type
- Area code
- Area type
- Area name
- Primary split type
- Primary split value
- Secondary split type
- Secondary split value
- Time period
- Value
- Lower confidence interval
- Upper confidence interval
- Sample size
- Unit
Page history
Publication release date:
18 December 2025
Updated:
28 January 2026
Full page history for this edition
-
28 January 2026
Updated some of the figures for levels of trust and fairness, because an error was found in the calculation of the sample size. The level of trust for 2002 has been changed from 5.1 to 5.0. The level of fairness for 2002 and 2004 has been changed from 5.6 to 5.5. -
18 December 2025
2025 changes