News trust statistics at a glance
News trust is not collapsing in one straight line; it is fragmenting across countries, platforms, age groups, and political identities. The latest Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024, Gallup, Pew Research Center, and Edelman figures show a market where trust can still be strong in some local and national contexts while remaining very weak in the broader media environment.
Key takeaways
- Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 surveyed more than 95,000 people across 47 countries, covering roughly half the world’s population.
- In Hungary and Greece, only 23% trust most news most of the time, the lowest figure in the Reuters survey.
- In the United States, overall trust in news is 32%, while local TV news is trusted by 62% and local newspapers by 61% (Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 - United States).
- Gallup found 31% of Americans had a great deal or fair amount of trust in mass media in 2024.
- Edelman found 66% trust search engines for general news and information globally, compared with 41% for social media.
- Pew’s audience splits show news consumption still tracks strongly by political identity, with Republicans and Democrats relying on different major outlets.
Fast facts
- In Spain, the share of people worn out by the news agenda rose from 26% in 2019 to 44% in 2024 (Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024).
- In Argentina, interest in news has fallen 32 points since 2017, and up to 45% avoid the news (Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024).
- In Thailand, 39% say they use TikTok for news; in Kenya, the figure is 36% (Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024).
- Gallup says the news media is the least trusted group among 10 U.S. civic and political institutions.
- The Reuters survey found Finland at 69% trust in news overall, the highest of the country figures listed here.
Table of contents
- What the latest news trust statistics measure
- Global and country-level trust benchmarks
- Why local news still outperforms national media
- How trust varies by age, party, and institution
- Platform trust and where people get news
- What the data says about news fatigue and avoidance
What the latest news trust statistics measure
The phrase “news trust statistics” covers several different but related questions. Some surveys ask whether people trust news overall. Others ask which specific outlets they use, how much they trust media institutions, or whether they avoid the news because it feels exhausting or overwhelming.
That distinction matters because the data does not describe one single trust problem. It describes several layers of trust pressure:
- trust in news as a category,
- trust in local versus national sources,
- trust in specific outlets,
- trust in news-adjacent platforms,
- and trust in media compared with other institutions.
The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 gives the broadest cross-country view in this set. It surveyed more than 95,000 people across 47 countries, covering roughly half the world’s population (Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024). That makes it a useful baseline for comparing countries and spotting where trust is especially high or low.
Gallup adds a U.S.-focused institutional view. Its 2024 reading found 31% of Americans had a great deal or fair amount of trust in mass media (Gallup - Americans’ Trust in Media Remains at Trend Low). That figure is not just low in isolation; Gallup also says the news media is the least trusted group among 10 U.S. civic and political institutions.
Edelman brings in a global information-trust lens. Its 2024 Trust Barometer found 66% trust search engines for general news and information globally, while 62% trust traditional media, 49% trust owned media, and 41% trust social media (2024 Edelman Trust Barometer). That spread shows that people do not evaluate every information channel the same way.
Global and country-level trust benchmarks
Some of the clearest news trust statistics are the country benchmarks. They show that trust in news can vary sharply even before you get to platform or outlet differences.
Country trust snapshot
| Country or market | Trust in news overall | Source label |
|---|---|---|
| Finland | 69% | Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 - Finland |
| Denmark | 57% | Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 - Denmark |
| Netherlands | 54% | Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 - Netherlands |
| Ireland | 46% | Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 - Ireland |
| Belgium | 44% | Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 - Belgium |
| Germany | 43% | Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 - Germany |
| Australia | 40% | Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 - Australia |
| Canada | 39% | Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 - Canada |
| United Kingdom | 36% | Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 - United Kingdom |
| Austria | 35% | Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 - Austria |
| Italy | 34% | Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 - Italy |
| Spain | 33% | Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 - Spain |
| United States | 32% | Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 - United States |
| Croatia | 32% | Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 - Croatia |
| Czech Republic | 31% | Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 - Czech Republic |
| France | 31% | Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 - France |
| South Korea | 31% | Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 - South Korea |
| Bulgaria | 29% | Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 - Bulgaria |
| Hungary | 23% | Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 |
| Greece | 23% | Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 |
A few patterns stand out immediately.
- Finland at 69% is a high-trust outlier compared with the rest of the listed countries (Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 - Finland).
- Hungary and Greece at 23% sit at the bottom of the Reuters figures cited here, showing how low trust can go in some markets (Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024).
- The middle of the table clusters tightly around the low-to-mid 30s and 40s, with countries like the United States at 32%, France at 31%, and Italy at 34%.
That middle cluster is important. It suggests that in many countries, trust in news is not absent, but it is also not strong enough to be assumed. The market is often operating in a band where one-third to one-half of respondents trust news overall, which leaves a large share unconvinced.
Why the spread matters
The Reuters figures show that news trust is not simply a universal crisis or a universal recovery. Instead, it is a country-by-country reality shaped by local media systems, audience habits, and national context.
In practical terms, that means two organizations can both report on “news trust” while describing very different situations:
- one country may have relatively stable trust in news overall,
- another may have healthy trust in local news but weak trust in news in general,
- and a third may be dealing with a broad avoidance pattern rather than outright rejection.
That is why the specific source labels matter. The figure for the United States should be read alongside the local news trust numbers, while the figures for Finland, Denmark, and the Netherlands help show what stronger trust looks like in the Reuters sample.
Why local news still outperforms national media
One of the most striking U.S. findings in the dataset is that local sources outperform the broader media environment by a large margin.
In the United States, local TV news is trusted by 62% of respondents and local newspapers by 61% (Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 - United States). Reuters also says these are the most trusted brands in the U.S. survey.
That gap matters because it suggests people do not reject all news equally. Trust can remain relatively strong when news feels:
- geographically close,
- relevant to daily life,
- and less tied to national conflict.
At the same time, the broader U.S. trust number is still only 32% for news overall (Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 - United States). So the data points to a split picture:
- local news can still earn trust,
- national or general news remains much harder to win,
- and the category average is pulled down by weak confidence outside the local level.
Local trust versus broad trust
| Measure | United States figure | Source label |
|---|---|---|
| Trust in news overall | 32% | Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 - United States |
| Trust in local TV news | 62% | Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 - United States |
| Trust in local newspapers | 61% | Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 - United States |
| Trust in mass media | 31% | Gallup - Americans’ Trust in Media Remains at Trend Low |
This comparison shows why broad “media trust” headlines can be misleading. People may distrust the category overall while still trusting a narrower, local subset of that category.
How trust varies by age, party, and institution
Gallup’s 2024 data shows media trust is not evenly distributed inside the United States either.
Party gaps in media trust
- 54% of Democrats trust the media in 2024 (Gallup - Americans’ Trust in Media Remains at Trend Low).
- 27% of independents trust the media in 2024 (Gallup - Americans’ Trust in Media Remains at Trend Low).
- 12% of Republicans trust the media in 2024 (Gallup - Americans’ Trust in Media Remains at Trend Low).
That gap is large enough to shape how people interpret the same news environment. It also helps explain why a single national trust figure can hide very different audience realities.
Pew’s source-use data points in the same direction. Republicans and Democrats rely on different news sources, which means the media diets that shape trust are also different.
Regular news sources by party
| Party group | Source | Share regularly getting news | Source label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Republicans | Fox News | 57% | Pew Research Center - Which News Sources Republicans and Democrats Use and Trust |
| Republicans | ABC News | 27% | Pew Research Center - Which News Sources Republicans and Democrats Use and Trust |
| Republicans | NBC News | 24% | Pew Research Center - Which News Sources Republicans and Democrats Use and Trust |
| Republicans | CBS News | 22% | Pew Research Center - Which News Sources Republicans and Democrats Use and Trust |
| Republicans | The Joe Rogan Experience | 22% | Pew Research Center - Which News Sources Republicans and Democrats Use and Trust |
| Democrats | CNN | 48% | Pew Research Center - Which News Sources Republicans and Democrats Use and Trust |
| Democrats | NBC News | 47% | Pew Research Center - Which News Sources Republicans and Democrats Use and Trust |
| Democrats | ABC News | 46% | Pew Research Center - Which News Sources Republicans and Democrats Use and Trust |
| Democrats | CBS News | 39% | Pew Research Center - Which News Sources Republicans and Democrats Use and Trust |
| Democrats | MSNBC | 33% | Pew Research Center - Which News Sources Republicans and Democrats Use and Trust |
| Democrats | NPR | 32% | Pew Research Center - Which News Sources Republicans and Democrats Use and Trust |
| Democrats | The Associated Press | 31% | Pew Research Center - Which News Sources Republicans and Democrats Use and Trust |
| Democrats | PBS | 31% | Pew Research Center - Which News Sources Republicans and Democrats Use and Trust |
| Democrats | BBC News | 30% | Pew Research Center - Which News Sources Republicans and Democrats Use and Trust |
| Democrats | The New York Times | 29% | Pew Research Center - Which News Sources Republicans and Democrats Use and Trust |
This table does not directly measure trust, but it helps explain the trust environment. People are not encountering the same media ecosystem, so their trust judgments are built from different starting points.
Gallup also shows a 17-point age gap in media trust between Americans 65+ (43%) and those under 50 (26%) (Gallup - Americans’ Trust in Media Remains at Trend Low). Among Democrats, the gap becomes even more pronounced: Gallup found 31% of Democrats aged 18 to 29 trust the media, while 74% of Democrats aged 65+ do.
That is a major signal for any news organization trying to understand audience relationships. The challenge is not only partisan; it is generational too.
Trust in institutions versus trust in media
Gallup’s institutional comparisons are especially useful because they show where news media sits relative to other parts of civic life.
- 67% trust local government to handle local problems (Gallup - Americans’ Trust in Media Remains at Trend Low).
- 55% trust state government to address state problems (Gallup - Americans’ Trust in Media Remains at Trend Low).
- 54% trust the American people as a whole to make judgments in the democratic system (Gallup - Americans’ Trust in Media Remains at Trend Low).
- 37% trust the federal government’s handling of domestic problems (Gallup - Americans’ Trust in Media Remains at Trend Low).
- The news media ranks last among 10 U.S. civic and political institutions in Gallup’s framing.
The practical takeaway is that media trust is not merely low in absolute terms. It is low relative to many other institutions that people still rely on.
Platform trust and where people get news
The trust discussion is no longer limited to newspapers, TV, and websites. People increasingly encounter news through search engines, social media, and owned media channels, and the trust levels differ materially.
Edelman’s 2024 Trust Barometer found:
- 66% trust search engines for general news and information globally.
- 62% trust traditional media for general news and information globally.
- 49% trust owned media for general news and information globally.
- 41% trust social media for general news and information globally.
This ranking is useful because it shows that search is not viewed the same way as social. Search engines sit at the top of the list, while social media sits at the bottom among the four channels named here (2024 Edelman Trust Barometer).
Ten-year movement in trust channels
| Channel | 2014 | 2024 | Change | Source label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Search engines | 63% | 66% | +3 points | 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer |
| Traditional media | 63% | 62% | -1 point | 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer |
| Owned media | 45% | 49% | +4 points | 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer |
| Social media | 44% | 41% | -3 points | 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer |
The direction of travel matters as much as the current level.
- Search engines gained trust over the decade.
- Traditional media slipped slightly.
- Owned media improved.
- Social media declined.
That suggests people are not simply becoming uniformly less trusting. Instead, they are sorting information channels into a hierarchy of perceived credibility.
TikTok and news discovery
The Reuters data also shows how platform behavior intersects with news trust.
- In Thailand, 39% say they use TikTok for news (Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024).
- In Kenya, 36% say they use TikTok for news (Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024).
These figures do not tell you whether TikTok itself is trusted more or less than other channels, but they do show that news consumption increasingly happens inside social platforms. That adds another layer to the trust question: people may find news through a platform even if they do not view that platform as the best place for reliable information.
What the data says about news fatigue and avoidance
Trust problems are often linked to fatigue, and the supplied statistics support that idea.
In Spain, the share of people who feel worn out by the news agenda rose from 26% in 2019 to 44% in 2024 (Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024). That is a substantial increase in a relatively short period.
In Argentina, interest in news has fallen 32 points since 2017, and up to 45% avoid the news (Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024). Those two numbers point to both demand loss and active avoidance.
The combination matters. Low trust is not just a belief problem; it can become a behavior problem. If people feel worn out or disengaged, they may consume less news, which can reduce opportunities for trust to rebuild.
How trust and avoidance reinforce each other
A few data-driven dynamics are visible in the dataset:
- Lower trust in news overall can coexist with stronger trust in local news.
- Strong partisan differences in media trust can create separate audiences with different source habits.
- Rising fatigue can push people toward avoidance, which weakens routine exposure.
- Platform-based discovery can shift people toward channels that are easier to access but not always the most trusted.
That combination is why news trust statistics need to be read as a system, not as a single number.
When Gallup says the media is the least trusted civic and political institution, while Reuters shows local TV and local newspapers still draw majority trust in the United States, and Edelman shows search engines outpacing social media for news trust globally, the message is not that trust has vanished.
The message is that trust has become selective.
The clearest signals in the dataset
- Finland’s 69% trust in news overall shows that high trust still exists at scale (Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 - Finland).
- Hungary and Greece at 23% show how low trust can run in some markets (Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024).
- United States local TV news at 62% and local newspapers at 61% show that local credibility remains a real asset (Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 - United States).
- Gallup’s 31% trust in mass media underscores the weak U.S. baseline for broad media confidence (Gallup - Americans’ Trust in Media Remains at Trend Low).
- Edelman’s 66% trust in search engines versus 41% for social media shows that not all digital channels are treated equally (2024 Edelman Trust Barometer).