The Swiss government has bucked the European trend and gone up in the estimation of the population, a poll released on Wednesday shows.

Between September and October 2011 the Reader's Digest magazine asked over 27,000 of its readers in 15 European countries about their trust in various institutions.

Of the 1,506 Swiss respondents, 54 per cent described their trust in the government as “very high” or “quite high”.  This was five percentage points above the  response last year, and more than twice as high as the European average, 22 per cent. The trust has risen steadily over the years, the poll shows: in 2005 it stood at 39 per cent, and in 2010 at 43 per cent.

Only the Swedish government was rated higher by its people, at 56 per cent.

Trust in civil servants also rose in Switzerland, by eight percentage points, to stand at 45 per cent. However, Swiss trust in the banks was down by seven percentage points, and their trust in the European Union by five.

Only 14 per cent of Swiss have confidence in the EU, the lowest percentage of any of the countries polled. On average 30 per cent of the Europeans questioned trusted the institution.

This was the 12th annual "European Trusted Brands " survey conducted by the Reader’s Digest. Respondents were drawn from its customer data base of over three million homes. They were asked to state their confidence in 14 key institutions.

Overall, marriage topped the poll as the institution in which people have the most confidence, with 66 per cent, while advertising came bottom, with only 13 per cent believing what is claimed.

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative