Social trust in Canada and the USA

Do Canadians and Americans still trust others in this age in political polarization?

Today we live in a time of social and political fracture. Much of what people know and how they communicate with others is happening on social media that channels content through narrow audiences, and feeds conflict and outrage. In the US, politics is now dividing Americans more than at any time since that country’s Civil War more than 150 years ago. In Canada, such divisions are much less sharp yet the political rhetoric is heating up at the federal level and in some provinces like Alberta. Immigration – long an issue on which there was a normative consensus – is now becoming a wedge issue.

All this suggests we may be witnessing a fundamental breakdown in the social glue that holds our society together. Amidst the noise of heated political rhetoric and ranting Tik Tok videos, are we losing trust in each other?

One way to answer this question is through public opinion research that measures social trust in the population over time. The AmericasBarometer is such a project that encompasses population surveys on democracy, governance and civic engagement in 20 plus countries spanning the western hemisphere, conducted biennially since 2006. Our focus here is on results from the most recent survey in Canada and the USA (conducted in July – September 2025) and how opinions on social trust have changed or not over the past decade.

Read the report.

This report was written by Keith Neuman, Senior Associate, Environics Institute for Survey Research

The AmericasBarometer is a regular comparative survey of democratic values and behaviours that covers countries in North, Central and South America, as well as a significant number of countries in the Caribbean (the 2025-26 study will cover 20 countries). The project is led by the LAPOP Lab at Vanderbilt University’s Center for Global Democracy (CGD). The Canadian survey was conducted by the Environics Institute for Survey Research, in partnership with CGD’s LAPOP Lab at Vanderbilt University and with the support of the Max Bell Foundation.

The Canadian survey was conducted online with a sample of 3,550 Canadians (aged 18 and over) between July 30 and August 7, 2025. The results are weighted by region, age, gender, education and language so as to be fully representative of the Canadian population. The U.S. survey was conducted online with 1,600 Americans (18 years of age and older) between October 3 and 16, 2025. The results are weighted by region, age, gender, education and ethnicity so as to be fully representative of the American population.

For more information about this survey, contact Dr. Andrew Parkin.