Youth institutional trust is an important indicator of public legitimacy and social capital, yet its short-term dynamics, evaluative foundations, and relationship with interpersonal trust are rarely examined within a single analytical framework. This study uses the 2023 and 2024 AlmaU Trust Barometer data to identify the hierarchy of youth trust in business, media, nongovernmental organizations, and government; assess how trust is associated with functional and ethical evaluations of institutions; and measure the gap between interpersonal and institutional trust. The analysis covers 793 respondents aged 18-35 from two repeated cross-sectional surveys (2023: n = 395; 2024: n = 398). Descriptive statistics, independent-samples t-tests, paired-samples t-tests, and Spearman rank correlations were applied. Trust in business was the highest and most stable in both years (6.30 and 6.31). Mean trust in government declined from 5.92 to 5.66, although the difference did not reach statistical significance at the .05 level. For every institution, the largest correlation coefficients involved functional-strategic evaluations, particularly purposefulness or future orientation; however, differences between the coefficients were not tested directly. Trust in family and friends was substantially higher than institutional trust. The study's originality lies in integrating institutional hierarchy, evaluative dimensions, and the trust gap into a unified empirical account of youth trust in Kazakhstan. The findings suggest that government bodies, media organizations, businesses, and civil society actors should combine demonstrable performance and clear long-term purpose with responsive feedback and procedural fairness when engaging young people.