The professions that people trust the most and the least have been revealed
In an international survey conducted in 31 countries, doctors, scientists, and teachers became the most trusted professionals. Politicians, social media influencers, and government ministers, on the other hand, took the lowest positions in the trust rating.
Most and least trusted professions revealed
In daily life, people rely on doctors, teachers, civil servants, and representatives of other professions. However, using their services or depending on their decisions does not always mean trusting them.
Ipsos’s Global Trustworthiness Index 2026 study revealed a significant gap in public trust toward representatives of various professions. Based on its results, Visual Capitalist prepared an infographic.
The survey, which covered 20 professions and social groups, involved 23,537 adult internet users from 31 countries. They were asked to rate the degree to which they consider representatives of various professions in their country to be trustworthy.
The ranking used a net trust score. This indicator is calculated by subtracting the proportion of people who distrust a certain profession's representatives from the proportion of those who trust them. A positive result indicates a predominance of trust, while a negative result indicates a predominance of distrust.
Doctors took first place, with their net trust score standing at +43 percentage points. They were followed by scientists (+42) and teachers (+37).
Attitudes toward these three professions turned out to be quite similar across different countries as well. According to Ipsos, in 27 out of the 31 countries participating in the study, it was doctors, scientists, and teachers who occupied the top three spots.
However, the gap between third and fourth place is significant. Representatives of the armed forces took fourth place with +16 percentage points. This is 21 percentage points lower than the teachers' indicator.
Personal fitness trainers (+10) and technology entrepreneurs (+6) also had a higher proportion of people expressing trust than distrust. Judges and police officers each recorded +5 percentage points.
Meanwhile, the indicator for lawyers came out to zero. This does not mean that no one trusts them: in the survey, the proportion of people who trust and distrust lawyers was equal.
Politicians occupied the very bottom of the ranking. Their net trust score was −48 percentage points. Only 13 percent of respondents considered politicians trustworthy, while 61 percent held the opposite opinion.
The gap between doctors and politicians is particularly large: there is a 91 percentage point difference between their net trust scores.