Who is at the top of the hit parade of the most trustworthy professions for the French? This year again, it is doctors and scientists who come at the top of this ranking, established every year by the Ipsos institute on the basis of a vast study carried out among citizens of 31 countries around the world – including approximately 1000 in France. The two professions respectively receive 64% and 59% confidence rates (compared to 11% and 12% distrust). Or proportions higher than world averages.
On the third step of the podium, we find teachers (52%), who are ahead of the military this year (49%). In the 2022 edition of this barometer, the two professions were tied for third. “The triptych of the three professions which inspire the most confidence, doctors, scientists and teachers, remains widely shared in the countries surveyed, with 26 out of 31 including them in the top 3,” notes Ipsos.
Yet at the heart of controversies in cases of violence, police officers remain in the top 5 of professions that inspire the most confidence. France is even one of the countries studied to have the most trust in law enforcement (47% compared to 36% for the world average). “We can hypothesize that in a context where crime and violence more or less constantly concern a third of French people, with peaks depending on current events, the police embody the bulwark against insecurity that they are waiting for,” tries to explain Yves Bardon, director of the Ipsos Flair program.
In the rest of this ranking of confidence ratings, the French then cite their own fellow citizens (38%), just ahead of judges (37%) and civil service agents (37%). “This makes France the country that has the most confidence” in civil servants, ahead of Singapore and India, underlines Alexandre Guérin, general director of Ipsos France. The average trust rate worldwide stands at just 25%.
In the opposite ranking, that of the professions that the French are most wary of, the prize goes again this year to politicians (61%), just ahead of advertisers (60%). France is even the country studied to show more distrust towards the latter, the world average rising to 43%. Followed by members of the government (57%), then bankers (47%, compared to 38% worldwide). We then find religious personnel (41% distrust), journalists (40%) and TV presenters (39%).
