Politicians, social media influencers and government ministers are among the least trusted professions in 2026, according to figures visualised by Visual Capitalist.
Politicians rank lowest on the list, with a net trust score of -48 percentage points, followed by social media influencers at -44 percentage points.
Government ministers rank third, with a score of -37 percentage points, highlighting the negative balance between trust and distrust recorded for the three professions.
Advertising executives follow with a net trust score of -26 percentage points, while clergy and priests record -11 percentage points.
Bankers and journalists both have net trust scores of -10 percentage points, placing them among the professions with more negative than positive trust balances.
Government officials and civil servants register a score of -9 percentage points, followed by business leaders at -8 percentage points.
Television news anchors and pollsters record the least negative scores on the list, at -3 and -2 percentage points, respectively.
The figures are presented as net trust scores, calculated as the percentage of respondents who trust a profession minus the percentage who distrust it. Negative scores indicate that distrust exceeds trust, while the size of the negative figure represents the gap between the two.
The data therefore does not mean that the percentage shown actively distrusts each profession. Rather, it represents the balance between those expressing trust and those expressing distrust.
The findings place political and government-related roles prominently among the professions with the largest negative trust balances, alongside social media influencers and advertising executives.
