Doctors Rank Most Trusted Profession in Ipsos Index
The Ipsos Global Trustworthiness Index 2026 ranks professions by net trust across 31 countries, with politicians near the bottom.
Updated on Nov. 2, 2026 in Corruption
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The Ipsos Global Trustworthiness Index 2026 ranks professions by trust based on surveys of more than 25,000 adults in 31 countries. Doctors, scientists and teachers hold the top three spots in 27 of the 31 countries.
Why it matters
The rankings show a wide gap between professions that respondents see as trustworthy and those seen as untrustworthy, with politicians at the bottom of the list. The results provide a global snapshot of public confidence across institutions and public roles.
The index is based on surveys of more than 25,000 adults, with net trust scores calculated from responses about each profession. Scores for politicians and government ministers remained negative in the 2026 index, while the source does not detail how individual countries compared.
The players
Ipsos
Ipsos is a global market research and public opinion firm that publishes surveys on social and political attitudes across many countries.
The details
Doctors earned a net trust score of +43, followed by scientists at +42 and teachers at +37. Armed forces scored +16, while government ministers scored -37 and social media influencers -44.
Timeline
2026: Ipsos Global Trustworthiness Index 2026 published
Corruption Trust Gap
The Ipsos Global Trustworthiness Index 2026 extends its annual ranking of professions, showing the gap between high trust in medicine and science and steep distrust of politicians. Public trust in government officials remains a central measure in corruption research worldwide.
Readers can use the index to gauge how much confidence the public places in different professions when assessing sources of information. The results show that politicians and government ministers are seen as untrustworthy by most respondents in the surveyed countries.
The takeaway
Trust in professions varies sharply, and public confidence tends to be highest for doctors, scientists and teachers. Comparing these rankings over time can help track changing attitudes toward institutions.
Further reading
Explore more on public trust in officials in our Corruption section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Kltz.
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