The Edelman TRUST BAROMETER™ is the firm’s annual trust and credibility survey, currently in its 19th year. What began as a survey of 1,300 people in five countries in 2001 has grown into a truly global measurement of trust across the world. The Trust Barometer is produced by our integrated research, analytics and measurement division, Edelman Intelligence.
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2019: Trust at Work
The 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals that trust has changed profoundly in the past year—people have shifted their trust to the relationships within their control, most notably their employers. Learn more.
2018: The Battle for Truth
The 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals a world of seemingly stagnant distrust. People’s trust in business, government, NGOs and media remained largely unchanged from 2017. Yet dramatic shifts are taking place at the market level and within the institution of media. Learn more.
2017: Trust in Crisis
Our 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals that trust is in crisis around the world. The general population’s trust in all four key institutions — business, government, NGOs, and media — has declined broadly, a phenomenon not reported since Edelman began tracking trust among this segment in 2012. Learn more.
2016: The State of Trust
Our 2016 Edelman Trust Barometer revealed trust levels in all four institutions have reached its highest level since the Great Recession, with business receiving the largest increase in trust among both the informed public and the larger general population. Learn more.
2015: Trust is Essential to Innovation
Our 2015 Edelman Trust Barometer found that countries with higher trust levels overall also show a greater willingness to trust new business innovations. Learn more.
2014: Business to Lead the Debate for Change
The 2014 Edelman Trust Barometer shows the largest ever gap between trust in business and government since the study began in 2001. While demand for regulation of business to protect consumers is high, the Edelman Trust Barometer also shows a significant level of permission for business to play a role in the debate and design of regulation. Learn more.
2013: Crisis of Leadership
In 2013, we surveyed more than 31,000 respondents in 26 markets around the world and measured their trust in institutions, industries, leaders and the impact of recent crises in the banking and financial service sectors. Learn more.
2012: Fall of Government
The 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer examined trust in four key institutions – government, business, media and NGOs – as well as communications channels and sources. Learn more.
2011: Rise of Authority Figures
In a year marred by corporate crises and financial turmoil for European governments, the 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer found trust in business and government to be markedly resilient and saw a shifting center of gravity. Trust in NGOs, “the fifth estate” in global governance, stayed strong. Read the executive summary and view the global results.
2010: Trust is Now an Essential Line of Business
On the heels of the Great Recession, when trust in business sunk to historic lows, the 2010 Edelman Trust Barometer reported a modest global rise in trust in business.
2009: Business Must Partner with Government to Regain Trust
The 2009 Edelman Trust Barometer reported on a year unlike any other. Government bailed out banks in New York and London. Melamine-laced baby formula rolled off assembly lines into the homes of Chinese parents. American auto executives descended on Washington hungry for handouts. An Illinois governor was led away in handcuffs. And as a $50 billion Ponzi scheme collapsed, an Indian tech mogul’s fraudulent enterprise started to crumble.
2008: Young Influencers Have More Trust in Business
The 2008 annual Edelman Trust Barometer revealed that trust in business was higher than in government in 14 of 18 countries surveyed and that 25-to-34-year-old opinion elites, studied for the first time — and historically cynical about business — tended to trust business even more than their older counterparts in many regions of the globe.
2007: Business More Trusted Than Government and Media
In 2007, we surveyed 3,100 opinion leaders in 18 countries to measures trust in institutions, companies and sources of information. The survey reported that business was more trusted than either government or media in every region of the globe.
2006: “A Person Like Me” Emerges as Credible Spokesperson
The 2006 annual Edelman Trust Barometer surveyed nearly 2,000 opinion leaders in 11 countries. According to the survey, global opinion leaders said their most credible source of information about a company was “a person like me,” which rose dramatically over the previous year to surpass doctors and academic experts for the first time.
2005: Trust Shifts From “Authorities” to Peers
For our annual trust and credibility survey in 2005, research was carried out among 1,500 opinion leaders in eight countries. The survey indicated that global opinion leaders’ trust in established institutions (business, government, media) and figures of authority (CEOs, heads of state) is being supplanted by a personal web of trust that includes “colleagues,” “friends and family,” “a person like yourself” as well as independent experts such as doctors and academics.
2004: U.S. Companies in Europe Suffer Trust Discount
According to the 2004 Edelman Trust Barometer, opinion leaders were significantly less likely to trust individual U.S.-based global corporations operating in Europe. Learn more.
2003: Earned Media More Credible Than Advertising
The 2003 Edelman Trust Barometer provided insights into the communications channels and spokespeople through which business could establish trust and credibility and found that information conveyed through news articles was more credible than advertisements.
2002: Fall of the Celebrity CEO
In 2002, Edelman surveyed 850 opinion leaders across the U.S., UK, France and Germany. This research revealed that while the era of the celebrity CEO was over, corporate leadership could not afford to hide.
2001: Rising Influence of NGOs
In 2001, Edelman surveyed 600 thought leaders in the UK, Germany and France as well as 500 U.S. thought leaders and 200 Australian thought leaders. The research provided insight into the relationship among NGOs, government, media and the corporate sector.
