Where does Switzerland stand on Trust?

Dataset 9.3.0

This page reads one capability from the published data and is recomputed with every release. It separates what Switzerland does, which makes the score, from what the country has, which sits beside the score, and places the country among the 10 countries at the nearest income. The text describes the data and recommends no policy.

What does the score rest on?

Score82.6Confidence0.50usable evidence

The Trust score is the equal-weight mean of the positions of five indicators on a 0 to 100 scale that every country sets together. Confidence measures the evidence behind the score and sits beside it as a second number.

The Trust score tracks GDP per capita at r = 0.35 across 123 countries.

Observed indicators

Time to enforce a contract
598 days
World Bank (ENF.CONT.DURS.DY), 2019
Position on the scale71.9Peer median80.610 peers with a value
Bribery incidence
0.33 % of firms
World Bank (IC.FRM.BRIB.ZS), 2025
Position on the scale99.4Peer median95.19 peers with a value
Government compliance with the courts
3.7 scale 0-4 (never to always)
V-Dem (v2jucomp_osp), 2025
Position on the scale96.9Peer median84.810 peers with a value
Generalised interpersonal trust
58.5 % agreeing
Joint EVS/WVS (A165), 2022
Position on the scale78.6Peer median75.56 peers with a value
Cooperation beyond the in-group
52.5 % expressing trust
Joint EVS/WVS (G007_34_B), 2022
Position on the scale66.2Peer median73.86 peers with a value

No comparable source yet, so lowering confidence: trust in public institutions and court case clearance rate.

No condition is published beside Trust in this release, so the page shows only the indicators that make the score.

Where does Switzerland sit among its peers?

The peers are the 10 countries at the nearest income. Income is GDP per capita at purchasing power parity, in constant international dollars, for the latest year the World Bank publishes, and distance is measured on a log scale, where half and double are equally far. No country is picked by hand, and the set changes when the data does.

In this release peer income runs from US$ 60,194 to US$ 95,173, and Switzerland has US$ 85,732 (2025).

Solid ring: usable or good evidence
Broken ring: thin evidence, opening further as confidence falls
The shaded band is the middle half of the set and the line inside it is the median.

NorwayUS$ 95,173, 202591.3
United StatesUS$ 76,931, 202569.9
DenmarkUS$ 72,723, 202594.1
NetherlandsUS$ 71,378, 202585.1
United Arab EmiratesUS$ 69,702, 202447.9
AustriaUS$ 63,970, 202574.8
BelgiumUS$ 63,488, 202579.1
SwedenUS$ 63,362, 202589.4
GermanyUS$ 62,824, 202587.5
AustraliaUS$ 60,194, 202579.8

What separates Switzerland from its peers?

Switzerland scores 82.6 on Trust, above the median of the 10 scored peers, which is 82.4.

Indicators placed above the peer median on the scale: bribery incidence, government compliance with the courts, and generalised interpersonal trust.

Indicators placed below the peer median on the scale: time to enforce a contract and cooperation beyond the in-group.

Each sentence compares one position with one median. Why a difference exists, and what to do about it, lie outside this data.

What this reading does not show

A national score is a coarse proxy. A capability forms in firms, cities, networks and groups below the level of the country, and a national average only describes the conditions they work in.
Peers share income and nothing else. Size, production structure, region and political regime are outside the rule, and a set of 10 countries can change with any revision to GDP.
An r reads the whole set at once and says nothing about one country alone. A correlation does not show a cause either.
The known artefacts that bear on Trust, described on the limits page: artefact A3, artefact A6, artefact A12.
And the ones every score in the benchmark carries: artefact A8, artefact A10.