Most Trustworthy Companies in America 2023

In any good relationship, the one essential ingredient is trust. It's hard to build, easy to lose and sometimes you think you have more of it than you really do. According to a survey last year by the consulting firm PwC, 87 percent of business executives thought consumers had a high level of trust in their companies. The number of customers who actually said they did was just 30 percent. There was also a gap, though a smaller one, between the 84 percent of executives who thought their employees had a lot of trust in their businesses and the 69 percent of employees who did.

Because trust plays a big part in customers' decisions about what to buy, employees' decisions about where to work and investors decisions about whether to invest, Newsweek, in collaboration with market research partner Statista, is proud to introduce our second annual listing of the Most Trustworthy Companies in America. This year we've listed 700 U.S. companies in 23 industries according to their evaluations by U.S. customers, employees and investors.

We looked at a pool of 3,100 U.S. based companies (1,800 publicly held and 1,300 privately held) with revenues over $500 million. Their rankings were based on the results of an independent survey from a sample of about 25,000 people in the U.S. who were asked how much they agreed with statements like "I trust in this company to treat me fairly as its customer," "I believe this company offers good opportunities for career development" and "I believe this company would be a good long-term investment."

Well-known names are prominent in this year's ranking, ranging from Quaker Oats in the food and beverage category, to 7-11 in grocery and convenience stores to Walmart in retail. The retail category had the largest number of winners with 61 companies making our list, followed by 47 for energy and utilities and 46 in food and beverage.

Whether you are a consumer or a potential employee or investor, we hope you find this year's ranking informative and useful.

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If your company is listed above, you can find out more about the licensing options visiting the Statista website.

METHODOLOGY
For the second time, Newsweek, in collaboration with market research partner Statista, recognizes the Most Trustworthy Companies in America in 23 industries according to U.S. residents' evaluations.

The Most Trustworthy Companies have been chosen based on a holistic approach to evaluating trust. The three main public touchpoints of trust have been considered: customer trust, investor trust, and employee trust.

The analysis followed a 3-step process:

1) Market definition: All companies headquartered in the US with a revenue over $500 million were considered in the study. Complementary to last year's methodology, private companies were also eligible.

2) Extensive survey: The basis of the analysis was an independent survey from a sample of about 25,000 U.S. residents, who rated companies they know in terms of all three touchpoints of trust. A total of 95,000 evaluations of companies were submitted. The field period ran from CW 45 to CW 48 2022.

3) Social Listening: For each company that received a sufficient number of evaluations, a Social Listening analysis was conducted. This involved researching what was said about a company in various media segments of the internet and evaluating whether it was positive, neutral or negative. In total, over 270,000 mentions were gathered. Additionally, all companies that were involved in any recent scandals or lawsuits relevant to a dimension of trust were excluded from the analysis.

The selection of the companies and the definition of the evaluation criteria were carried out according to independent journalistic criteria of Newsweek and Statista. The evaluation was carried out by the statistics and market research company Statista.

Newsweek and Statista make no claim to the completeness of the companies examined. The ranking is comprised exclusively of U.S. companies that are eligible regarding the criteria described here. A position in the ranking is a positive recognition based on an extensive consumer survey and the research at the time. Events following February 9, 2023 were not a subject of this survey and analysis. As such, the results of this ranking should not be used as the sole source of information for future deliberations. The information provided in this ranking should be considered in conjunction with other available information. The quality of companies that are not included in the ranking is not disputed.

Download the full methodology here.

Note: As with all our rankings, Most Trustworthy Companies in America 2023 is continually updated based on available information. We have deleted a company from this list.