INSCOP survey: The Army and the Church remain the most trusted institutions for citizens

The Army and the Church remain the institutions in which Romanians have the most trust, followed by NATO and the EU, while the Government and the Parliament are in the last positions, with a considerably lower trust rate than 10 years ago, according to the data of a survey conducted by INSCOP for News.ro.

The Army is the institution in which Romanians have the highest level of trust, with 70.4% of respondents declaring that they have high or very high trust in this institution (compared to 65.4% in 2013), followed by the Church with 62.5% (compared to 65.2% in 2013). The top of trust is continued by two international institutions, NATO with 55.4% high and very high trust (compared to 52.1% in 2013) and the European Union with 50.3% (compared to 49.3% in 2013). In the following positions are the Police with 48.6% (compared to 46% in 2013), the National Bank of Romania with 43.3% (compared to 51.2% in 2013), local authorities - town hall - with 41% (compared to of 39.6% in 2013) and the Presidency with 29.8% (compared to 25.8% in 2013).

On the last positions in the top of citizens' trust are the Government with 19.4% very and very much trust (compared to 34.8% in 2013) and the Parliament with 17.4% much and very much trust (compared to 26.7% in 2013).

Remus Ştefureac, director of INSCOP, told the quoted source:

"The trust (a lot and a lot) of Romanians in domestic and international institutions and organizations reveals an exceptional stability in the last 10 years. The trust ranking of the top four institutions is unchanged from 2013 to the present, with the Army and the Church in the top two places, followed by NATO and the European Union. Confidence in the Army and NATO has increased compared to 2013, the evolution being natural in the current security context marked by the war in Ukraine. Trust in the more political institutions - Presidency, Government and Parliament - is influenced by the specific contexts of the political moments in which the data were collected (2013, respectively 2023). A lower trust in the Government and Parliament is observed in 2023 compared to 2013, the situation being perfectly explainable given that the current assessment is made after a period of successive crises (pandemic, economic crisis, social difficulties, changes of governments) that have eroded the confidence of the Romanians".

The opinion survey was carried out by INSCOP Research between October 23 and November 2, using the CATI method (telephone interviews), through the questionnaire. The volume of the simple, stratified sample is 1,100 people, representative of the significant sociodemographic categories (sex, age, occupation) for the non-institutionalized population of Romania, aged 18 and over. The maximum permissible error of the data is ± 3 % at a confidence level of 95 %.