On Tuesday 20th January, Edelman launched its 15th annual Trust Barometer Survey. The survey was powered by research firm Edelman Intelligence and sampled 27,000 general population respondents with an oversample of 6,000 informed publics aged 25-64 across 27 markets.

Some of the key UK findings reveal that:

  • The UK is drifting in the ‘trust doldrums’, as trust in government, business and media flatline
  • People are desperate for honesty and fair play, leading to stagnating trust levels despite an economy returning to growth
  • NGOs in the UK are the worst hit, as people start to see NGOs behaving like businesses
  • Trust in media in the UK stagnates as people blame publications for the motivations behind the media mishaps of 2014, rutted in commercial interests before public interests
  • Companies headquartered in the UK are trusted globally by 70%, just 6% below chart-topping Sweden
  • Boris Johnson remains the UK’s most trusted politician to ‘speak [his] mind’ (66%), with Nigel Farage becoming more trusted year-on-year (61%)
  • Less than half of the UK population trust a political leader to return £10 if they lent it to them

On the morning of the launch we were joined by Sir John Sawers GCMG, former Chief of the Secret Service who delivered the annual Trust lecture alongside Richard Edelman, CEO & President, Edelman, and Ed Williams, CEO, Edelman UK, who presented the Trust Barometer global and UK findings respectively.

UK RESULTS

If you have any questions about the survey or would like any further information please contact Kayleigh.Ryan@Edelman.com.