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Trust in EU rural areas

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Abstract

In this work, trends and drivers of rural trust in institutions are derived based on respondent-level data from the Standard Eurobarometer surveys. We find that, in terms of trust towards the EU, a considerable urban-rural gap exists, with 48% of rural residents declaring that they tend to trust the EU in 2024,12 percentage points less than city residents (60%). Rural trust in the EU, however, can vary substantially between Member States, with lowest levels being found in France (35%). On the other hand, rural residents place high levels of trust in regional and local authorities (65%), independently of their opinions towards the EU. Less education, more financial difficulties and less qualified jobs, which are more common in rural areas, are all associated with a lower trust towards the EU. After controlling for socioeconomic and demographic factors, however, we find that living in a rural area is still significantly associated with lower trust in the EU, hinting at a connection between rural challenges and citizens’ opinions that goes beyond individual circumstances.

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  • Hormigos Feliu Clara & Dijkstra Lewis, 2025. "Trust in EU rural areas," JRC Working Papers on Territorial Modelling and Analysis 2025-11, Joint Research Centre.
    • Handle: RePEc:ipt:termod:202511
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    1. Mitsch, Frieder & Lee, Neil & Morrow, Elizabeth, 2021. "Faith no more? The divergence of political trust between urban and rural Europe," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 110447, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Lewis Dijkstra & Hugo Poelman & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2020. "The geography of EU discontent," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(6), pages 737-753, June.
    3. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2018. "CommentaryThe revenge of the places that don’t matter (and what to do about it)," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 11(1), pages 189-209.
    4. Andres Rodriguez-Pose, 2018. "The revenge of the places that don?t matter (and what to do about it)," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1805, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Jan 2018.
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