Trust and quality of life: trusting others, life satisfaction and loneliness
Short answer: Sweden is among the countries where the most people think most people can be trusted: 63 per cent in the World Values Survey 2022, close to Norway, Denmark and Finland and far above Germany, the UK and the US. Confidence in the police and health care is high, just over 70 per cent in 2024, while 19 per cent have high confidence in the political parties. Yet the share of adults who find it hard to trust others has risen in the Public Health Agency's survey, from 24 per cent in 2004 to 32 per cent in 2024, and trust is lower among young people, people with low incomes and people born outside Europe. Roughly one adult in twenty is often or always troubled by loneliness, and almost one in ten among young adults.
More on the site: Mental health on sick leave, young people and suicide, Democracy on voter turnout and what residents think of their municipality, Public service and media on confidence in the media, Crime on victimisation and feeling unsafe, and Sweden in the world on the happiness ranking and why the Nordic countries rank high.
Can most people be trusted?
The World Values Survey and the European Values Study ask the same question in about a hundred countries roughly every six years: can most people be trusted, or can you not be too careful? The chart shows the share who answer that most people can be trusted.
The SOM Institute's measure
The SOM Institute asks on a scale from 0 to 10 to what extent people in general can be trusted. The share with high trust, 7 to 10, was 62 per cent in 1996 and 57 per cent in 2025. The share with low trust, 0 to 3, was 10 and 12 per cent.
SOM Institute, Svenska trender 1986 to 2025
Differences by country of birth
In Statistics Sweden's citizen survey in autumn 2023, just over 6 in 10 people born in Sweden said that people can largely be trusted, compared with just over 5 in 10 born elsewhere in Europe and just over 4 in 10 born outside Europe. The gap existed in every type of neighbourhood.
Statistics Sweden, Utrikes och inrikes föddas syn på samhället, 21 November 2024
World Values Survey and European Values Study, compiled by Our World in Data (CC BY 4.0). Waves are grouped into one year per wave; not every country is in every wave.
Confidence in public institutions.
The SOM Institute at the University of Gothenburg has asked since 1986 how much confidence people have in various institutions. The bars show the share with very or fairly high confidence in 2024. Confidence in the media is on the page about public service and media.
SOM Institute, Svenska förtroendetrender 1986 to 2024, tables 1 to 8. Before 2006 the report shows only every other year for most institutions. The Public Health Agency also measures low trust in public institutions: 24 per cent in 2024.
How satisfied Swedes are with their lives.
The World Happiness Report is based on Gallup's question where people place their life on a ladder from 0, the worst possible life, to 10, the best possible. The ranking and the explanations for why the Nordic countries rank high are on the page about Sweden in the world; here is the trend over time.
More are very satisfied
In the SOM Institute's survey, 30 per cent were very satisfied with the life they lead in 1996 and 38 per cent in 2025. The share who are not satisfied has stayed around 7 to 8 per cent.
SOM Institute, Svenska trender 1986 to 2025
World Happiness Report, Gallup World Poll, compiled by Our World in Data (CC BY 4.0), average per country and year.
Who is troubled by loneliness.
The Public Health Agency's national public health survey, Health on equal terms, asks how often people are troubled by loneliness. The bars show the share troubled often or always, by age. Other mental health issues are on the page about mental health.
A health risk
A meta-analysis of 148 studies with over 300,000 participants found that strong social relationships raised the chance of surviving the follow-up period by about half. A later analysis found a 26 per cent higher risk of early death for people who are lonely and 29 per cent for people who are socially isolated.
Holt-Lunstad et al. (2010), PLoS Medicine, doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316; Holt-Lunstad et al. (2015), Perspectives on Psychological Science, doi:10.1177/1745691614568352
A national strategy
The Public Health Agency handed Sweden's first national strategy against loneliness to the government on 28 February 2025. At the same time the agency received 49 million kronor to distribute to civil society, and for 2026 it has 6 million kronor to coordinate efforts.
Government, press releases 28 February and 23 December 2025, ref. S2023/01137 and S2025/00398
Public Health Agency, Folkhälsodata, Health on equal terms: mental health and social relations by age, 16 to 84 years unless stated otherwise. The Red Cross and Statistics Sweden measure loneliness with other questions, so the figures cannot be combined.
Differences by country of birth and income.
Three measures from the Public Health Agency's survey, by where people were born and by income quintile, from the fifth that earns least to the fifth that earns most. The income groups are age standardised.
| Group | Hard to trust others | Lacks emotional support | Low trust in institutions |
|---|
Public Health Agency, Folkhälsodata, Health on equal terms: social relations by country of birth and by finances, per cent of 16 to 84 year olds.
Trust, support and safety in each county.
To get enough answers per county, the Public Health Agency pools four years. Figures per municipality are not available for these questions. The column on refraining from going out alone measures feeling unsafe; crime and Brå's crime survey are on the page about crime.
| County | Hard to trust others | Lacks emotional support | Refrained from going out alone out of fear |
|---|
Public Health Agency, Folkhälsodata, Health on equal terms: social relations by region, per cent of 16 to 84 year olds, four year average.
What research says about where trust comes from.
Research on social trust points to several explanations that do not exclude each other. On trust and economic growth, see Sweden in the world.
Impartial institutions
Rothstein and Stolle argue that trust in people in general grows where the police, courts and public agencies are seen as fair and free of corruption.
Rothstein and Stolle (2008), Comparative Politics, doi:10.5129/001041508X12911362383354
Both where people come from and where they live
Among immigrants in Western Europe, trust is linked both to trust in the country of origin and to how free of corruption the new country is. A Swedish study from 2026 found that the trust level in the new country was the strongest predictor of immigrants' trust.
Dinesen (2013), European Sociological Review, doi:10.1093/esr/jcr044; Grosse (2026), Sociologisk forskning, doi:10.37062/sf.63.26299
Ethnic diversity nearby
A meta-analysis of 87 studies found a weak negative link between ethnic diversity and trust, strongest for trust in neighbours and when diversity is measured close to home. A Danish register study found the effect within 80 metres of the home, but not at higher levels. Putnam described in 2007 a short term decline in trust in mixed areas and argued that it can reverse in the long run.
Dinesen, Schaeffer and Sønderskov (2020), Annual Review of Political Science, doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-052918-020708; Dinesen and Sønderskov (2015), American Sociological Review, doi:10.1177/0003122415577989; Putnam (2007), Scandinavian Political Studies, doi:10.1111/j.1467-9477.2007.00176.x
Mixed results
A review of the research notes that civil society, the quality of institutions, culture and ethnic composition have all been proposed as explanations, but that the results point in different directions and causality is often unclear.
Nannestad (2008), Annual Review of Political Science, doi:10.1146/annurev.polisci.11.060606.135412
The parties' positions on loneliness.
Every party in the Riksdag has tabled motions on loneliness, mostly among older people. Social trust as a policy issue of its own barely appears in the motions. The table summarises motions from the 2025/26 session, before the 2026 election; a motion shows the position of a member or party group, not the whole party programme.
| Party | Position | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Social Democrats | Describes loneliness as a major social problem that especially affects older people. Wants to give 50 million kronor to civil society's work against loneliness among older people. | Motion 2025/26:3645 |
| Moderates | Sees involuntary loneliness as a major cause of poorer health at all ages and wants to look into more meeting places and shared meals. | Motion 2025/26:814 |
| Sweden Democrats | Sees involuntary loneliness as a significant risk factor and wants to promote measures that break it. Refers to the survey and strategy the government decided together with the SD. | Motion 2024/25:1362 |
| Christian Democrats | The party's Minister for Social Affairs is responsible for the government's work against loneliness. One motion wants health check-ups from age 40 and says current efforts are not enough. | Motion 2025/26:464 |
| Liberals | Wants to make it easier for older people to keep working, support voluntary organisations and review the rules for senior and shared housing and common rooms. | Motion 2025/26:3758 |
| Centre Party | Points to inaccessible housing as a cause of loneliness among older people. Wants to use the government's grant against ill health and loneliness among older people for a guaranteed care home place at age 85. | Motion 2025/26:3737 |
| Left Party | Writes that involuntary loneliness affects more and more older people and wants to strengthen associations and social activities. | Motion 2025/26:171 |
| Green Party | Wants loneliness to be part of public health work and to invest in more meeting places and outreach. | Motion 2025/26:3544 |
Riksdag open data. The Sweden Democrats' motion is from the 2024/25 session. The parties' positions after the 2026 election are not included.
Where the figures come from.
- Trust across countries: World Values Survey and European Values Study. Happiness: World Happiness Report. Both via Our World in Data, CC BY 4.0.
- Confidence in institutions, interpersonal trust and life satisfaction: the SOM Institute at the University of Gothenburg.
- Loneliness, emotional support, trust by group and county: Public Health Agency, Folkhälsodata, Health on equal terms.
- Country of birth: Statistics Sweden, citizen survey autumn 2023. The strategy against loneliness: the government. The parties: Riksdag open data.
The series were retrieved in October 2026.