This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Poor access to health care, limited local influence over research priorities and an unequal distribution of scientific benefits are undermining public confidence in science, experts warn, following the release of a global trust survey. The Wellcome Global Monitor 2026 surveyed more than 140,000 people in 140 countries in 2025 and found that trust in science had fallen below prepandemic levels.
To track changes over time, researchers compared results from 108 countries surveyed in 2018, 2020 and 2025. The proportion of respondents expressing at least some trust in science fell from 77% in 2018 to 72% in 2025, after rising to 80% during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Over the same period, the share reporting little or no trust in science rose from 13% in both 2018 and 2020 to 19% in 2025.
Trust in scientists themselves also declined. The share of people expressing "a lot" of trust in scientists dropped to 32% in 2025, down from 34% in 2018 and 43% in 2020. "There isn't a crisis or a wholesale collapse," said Mark Henderson, executive director of corporate affairs and engagement at Wellcome, presenting the findings at the World Health Summit in Berlin.
He added, "There is a substantial base of trust. But there's also movement and there's fragility underneath the surface." The findings show a growing gap between people's expectations of science and their experiences of its benefits. Trust was lowest among people struggling financially and higher among those who had confidence in their local health care institutions.
Overall, 26% of respondents said they trusted science "a lot." But this rose to 43% among those who said they had a lot of confidence in their country's hospitals and health clinics. Globally, 39% of people who said they were living comfortably trusted science "a lot," compared with 20% of those struggling financially. Evelyn Gitau, chief scientific officer at the Science for Africa Foundation, who also spoke at the launch event, said, "It's people saying: My life is hard, and while I know science can fix it, it's not fixing it.
So I have no trust." Perceptions of who benefits from research also varied. Although 81% of respondents said scientific work benefits people like them, only 36% said it benefits most people in their country. One in five said science benefits very few people.
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