Trust in news varies substantially by age, but the pattern depends on the type of information being assessed. In 2025, younger adults reported less trust in most news than older adults across 18 markets, while U.S. adults aged 18–29 trusted social media information almost as much as information from national news organizations. Local news attracted higher trust than national news across every U.S. age group measured by Pew Research Center.
Contents
- Global trust in news by age
- U.S. trust in national news organizations
- U.S. trust in local news organizations
- Trust in social media information
- Credibility, representation, and journalistic standards
- Fairness, watchdog expectations, and loyalty
Global trust in news by age
The Reuters Institute’s cross-market figures show a clear age difference in reported trust. Across 18 markets, 37% of adults aged 18–24 said they trusted most news most of the time in 2025. The comparable share was 41% in 2015. These figures describe survey perceptions, not an objective determination of whether news was accurate.
The 2025 result was also lower than the result for older adults. Across the same 18 markets, the trust share among people aged 18–24 was 9 percentage points lower than among people aged 55 and over. The age comparison is therefore a cross-market aggregate, rather than a single-country estimate.
The two Reuters Institute percentages also provide a limited historical comparison for the youngest measured group. The share reporting trust fell from 41% in 2015 to 37% in 2025. Because the source presents these as figures across 18 markets, the comparison should not be read as a complete global time series or as evidence that every participating country moved in the same way.
The source is Understanding young news audiences at a time of rapid change, published with the 2025 cross-market figures.
U.S. trust in national news organizations
Pew Research Center measured whether U.S. adults had “a lot” or “some” trust in information from national news organizations in a survey conducted September 8–14, 2025. Trust increased with age across the four reported groups:
| U.S. age group | Trust in national news information |
|---|---|
| 18–29 | 51% |
| 30–49 | 52% |
| 50–64 | 58% |
| 65 and older | 62% |
The youngest and oldest groups differed by 11 percentage points: 51% of adults aged 18–29 reported at least some trust, compared with 62% of adults aged 65 and older. The intermediate groups were 52% for ages 30–49 and 58% for ages 50–64. These are U.S. adult survey results from the same September 2025 field period, so the comparison is internally consistent on geography and timing.
Pew’s 2025 analysis also separates respondents by political leaning. Among Democratic-leaning U.S. adults, 61% of those under 30 reported at least some trust in national news organizations, compared with 66% of those aged 30–49, 73% of those aged 50–64, and 79% of those aged 65 and older. The range from the youngest to oldest Democratic-leaning groups was 18 percentage points.
Among Republican-leaning U.S. adults, 42% of those aged 18–29 reported at least some trust in national news organizations, compared with 50% of those aged 65 and older. The supplied figures identify the youngest and oldest Republican-leaning groups, but do not provide corresponding values for the two intermediate age bands. The political-leaning figures should therefore be read as subgroup comparisons, not as a replacement for the overall age distribution.
These results come from Younger adults trust info from social media sites as much as that from national news organizations, covering the September 8–14, 2025 U.S. survey.
U.S. trust in local news organizations
Local news received higher reported trust than national news in every U.S. age group in Pew’s September 8–14, 2025 survey. The shares reporting “a lot” or “some” trust in information from local news organizations were 65% among adults aged 18–29, 67% among those aged 30–49, 72% among those aged 50–64, and 76% among those aged 65 and older.
The age gradient was narrower in absolute terms than for national news: the youngest and oldest groups differed by 11 percentage points, from 65% to 76%. Within each age band, however, local news had a higher trust share than national news. The differences were 14 points for ages 18–29, 15 points for ages 30–49, 14 points for ages 50–64, and 14 points for ages 65 and older.
The earlier U.S. comparison uses a different survey period. In Pew’s February 22–March 4, 2018 survey, 73% of adults aged 18–29 reported a lot or some trust in information from local news organizations. The shares were 81% among adults aged 30–49, 86% among those aged 50–64, and 88% among those aged 65 and older.
The 2018 local-news figures were higher than the corresponding 2025 figures for all four age groups: 73% versus 65% for ages 18–29, 81% versus 67% for ages 30–49, 86% versus 72% for ages 50–64, and 88% versus 76% for ages 65 and older. Since the surveys were conducted in different years and the supplied notes caution that question wording can vary, these values should not be treated as a controlled estimate of change.
The 2025 values are reported by Pew Research Center. The 2018 values come from Partisans Remain Sharply Divided in Their Attitudes About the News Media.
Trust in social media information
In the same September 8–14, 2025 U.S. survey, trust in information from social media sites moved in the opposite direction from trust in national and local news: it was highest among younger adults and lowest among older adults. The reported shares were 50% for adults aged 18–29, 41% for ages 30–49, 33% for ages 50–64, and 24% for ages 65 and older.
| U.S. age group | Trust in social media information, 2025 | Trust in local news information, 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| 18–29 | 50% | 65% |
| 30–49 | 41% | 67% |
| 50–64 | 33% | 72% |
| 65 and older | 24% | 76% |
The social-media trust share declined by 26 percentage points from the youngest to oldest age group. For adults aged 18–29, the 50% social-media figure was one percentage point below the 51% figure for national news organizations. Among adults aged 65 and older, the corresponding social-media figure was 38 percentage points below national news trust.
Pew’s earlier February 22–March 4, 2018 U.S. survey found 41% of adults aged 18–29, 37% of those aged 30–49, 30% of those aged 50–64, and 21% of those aged 65 and older reporting a lot or some trust in information from social media sites. Those 2018 values also show a younger-to-older decline, but the supplied evidence does not establish a like-for-like trend estimate between 2018 and 2025.
Credibility, representation, and journalistic standards
Trust is connected to several distinct judgments about journalism. In Pew’s U.S. survey conducted February 22–March 4, 2018, 38% of adults aged 18–29 said news organizations understood people like them. The corresponding shares were 39% for ages 30–49, 40% for ages 50–64, and 41% for ages 65 and older. The measured age difference was modest, with a 3-point spread between the youngest and oldest groups.
A separate Pew survey conducted November 27–December 10, 2018 asked about confidence that journalists would act in the public’s best interests. The share expressing a great deal of confidence was 15% among adults aged 18–29, 13% among those aged 30–49, 15% among those aged 50–64, and 16% among those aged 65 and older. The highest and lowest values differed by 3 percentage points.
Pew also reported ratings of journalists’ ethical standards in a U.S. survey conducted March 18–April 1, 2019. Only 6% in each of the four age groups—18–29, 30–49, 50–64, and 65 and older—rated journalists’ ethical standards as very high. This measure showed no age difference in the supplied figures, even though the broader trust measures did vary by age.
Together, these measures distinguish several concepts that are often combined under “trust.” Feeling that news organizations understand people like the respondent ranged from 38% to 41%; a great deal of confidence that journalists would act in the public’s best interests ranged from 13% to 16%; and a very-high rating for ethical standards was 6% across every age group. Each result belongs to its own question and survey period.
Fairness, watchdog expectations, and loyalty
Pew’s February 19–March 4, 2019 U.S. survey measured whether respondents thought news organizations dealt fairly with all sides on political and social issues. The shares were 26% among adults aged 18–29, 27% among ages 30–49, 30% among ages 50–64, and 20% among those aged 65 and older. The oldest group was therefore the lowest on this measure, while the 50–64 group was the highest.
The same survey asked whether news criticism kept political leaders from doing things they should not do. The shares answering positively were 24% for ages 18–29, 27% for ages 30–49, 33% for ages 50–64, and 32% for ages 65 and older. The two oldest groups were 8 and 9 percentage points above the youngest and 30–49 groups, respectively.
Finally, the survey measured loyalty to news sources. Twenty-seven percent of adults aged 18–29 said they were loyal to their news sources, compared with 36% of those aged 30–49, 44% of those aged 50–64, and 49% of those aged 65 and older. The youngest-to-oldest difference was 22 percentage points, the widest age spread among the three measures in this section.
These fairness, watchdog, and loyalty figures are from Trusting the News Media in the Trump Era. Across the evidence, age differences are not uniform: local-news and national-news trust generally rise with age, social-media trust falls with age, ethical-standard ratings are equal across age groups, and fairness judgments peak in the 50–64 group rather than the oldest group.