Trust grows with age, education and income

A new Pew Research Center study, “Americans’ Trust in One Another,” released this week, confirmed what many have long suspected: trust in others is in short supply.

The question at the heart of the survey was deceptively simple: Do you agree or disagree with the statement, “Most people can be trusted”? There was no guidance on what kind of people or what kind of circumstances—just a stark choice between trust and skepticism.

Only 34 percent of American adults surveyed between July 2023 and March 2024 agreed that most people can be trusted. That leaves two-thirds of the population either doubtful or downright cynical about the trustworthiness of their fellow citizens.

The responses weren’t uniform, however. Trust tended to rise alongside age, education and income. Among those with a high school diploma or less, just 24 percent said most people could be trusted. That number rose to 31 percent for those with some college, 44 percent for college graduates, and 52 percent among those with postgraduate education.

Household income told a similar story. Just 25 percent of Americans earning under $50,000 expressed trust in most people. Trust levels rose to 35 percent among those in the $50,000–$99,999 range, and to 46 percent among households earning $100,000 or more.

Age made a difference, too. The youngest adults, ages 18 to 29, were the least trusting, with just 26 percent saying most people can be trusted. That number climbed gradually with age—31 percent for those 30 to 49, 36 percent for those 50 to 64, and 44 percent among seniors 65 and older.

There was even a modest gender gap: 32 percent of women reported general trust in others, compared to 37 percent of men.

Pessimists might suggest that these numbers expose a hard truth—that Americans with less education and lower income are often the ones most exposed to harm, least buffered from risk, and most likely to be victimized by the systems and institutions in place--and each other.

Others might interpret the same data and conclude the opposite: that trust grows as people gain experience, knowledge, and resources—and that trust itself may be a product of social stability rather than its prerequisite.

Still, there’s a more hopeful interpretation available, and it deserves some attention.

The older we get, the more inclined we are to trust. The more we learn, the more we trust. The more we are invested in our communities and connected to the world around us, the more likely we are to believe in others. These aren’t cynical patterns. They are signals of resilience, of growth, and of a quiet optimism earned through lived experience.

In a time when so many institutions are questioned and divisions seem to dominate public life, the Pew data suggest that trust is not vanishing—it’s evolving. And if trust can be learned, nurtured, and rebuilt, then so can the sense of community that depends on it.

That’s not just good news. That’s a reason to hope.