Looking back: 20 years of the Global Risks Report 2.6 of the Global Risks Report over the last 20 years and the fluctuations of those rankings over that time period. The figur e illustrates how consistently or variably each risk has been perceived over time, as represented by the standard deviation of its ranking. The sections that follow assess further how the 10-year outlooks for key risks and risk categories have changed over the last two decades. Key trends in risk perceptions Environmental risks have consistently topped the 10-year ranking When assessing the evolution of perceptions of the four Structural forces, Climate change is the Standard deviation of ranking (the higher the value, the more variable the rank)Average rank 302018 25151051 0 5 10 8 15 20Crime and illicit economic activityDebt Disruptions to critical infrastructure InﬂationExtreme weather events Natural resource shortages Non-weather related natural disasters Biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons or hazardsState-based armed conﬂict Infectious diseases Insufﬁcient public infrastructure and social protectionsAsset bubble bursts Economic downturnBiodiversity loss and ecosystem collapseCritical change to Earth systems PollutionInvoluntary migration or displacement Adverse outcomes of frontier technologiesSocietal polarization Disruptions to a systemically important supply chainGeoeconomic confrontationLack of economic opportunity or unemployment Concentration of strategic resourcesCyber espionage and warfareIntrastate violenceInequality Misinformation and disinformation Talent and/or labour shortagesAdverse outcomes of AI technologies Censorship and surveillance Erosion of human rights and/or civic freedoms Decline in health and well-beingHigh average rank, high ﬂuctuation Low average rank, high ﬂuctuation Low average rank, low ﬂuctuationHigh average rank, low ﬂuctuation Crime and illicit economic activityDebt Disruptions to critical infrastructure InﬂationExtreme weather events Natural resource shortages Non-weather related natural disasters Biological, chemical, or nuclear weaponsor hazardsState-based armed conﬂict Infectious diseases Insufﬁcient public infrastructureand social protectionsAsset bubble bursts EconomicdownturnBiodiversity loss and ecosystem collapseCritical change to Earth systems PollutionInvoluntary migration or displacement Adverse outcomes of frontier technologiesSocietal polarization Disruptions to a systemically important supply chainGeoeconomic confrontationLack of economic opportunity or unemployment Concentration of strategic resourcesCyber espionageand warfareIntrastateviolenceInequality Misinformation and disinformation Decline in health and well-beingTalent and/or labour shortagesAdverse outcomes of AI technologies Censorship and surveillance Erosion of human rightsand/or civic freedomsThe first edition of the Globa l Risks Report was launched in 2006 in a risks la ndscape characterized by terrorism and concerns aro und avian influenza, among other risks. Over the course of th e 20 editions of the report, we have lived th rough significant events that have reshaped our economic and societal landscapes, from the 2007-2008 g lobal financial crisis to the COVID-19 pande mic. We have also witnessed the compounding eff ects of the Structural forces of Technological acceleratio n, Geostrategic shifts, Climate change and Demographic bifurcation (Box 2.1) . These Structural forces are determi ning long-term shifts in the arrangement of, and re lation between, the systemic elements of the globa l landscape. Figure 2.17 shows the average 10-year risk outlook rankings of the risks covered in the current edition Average risk ranking and variabilit y, 2006-25 FIGURE 2.17 Source World Economic Forum Global Risks Perception Survey 2005-2006 to 2024-2025.Mean lineRisk categories Economic Environmental Geopolitical Societal Technological Number of years of data 510 15 20 Note Average risk severity and ﬂuctuation over a 20-year period, based on the list of global risks in the Global Risks Report 2025 . The x-axis represents the standard deviation of risk severity rankings, indicating volatility in risk perception. The y-axis denotes the average severity ranking, where higher values reﬂect more critical risks. Dot size corresponds to the frequency of a risk’s appearance across the last twenty editions of the Global Risks Report . Online harms was not included in Figure 2.17 due to being a new risk introduced in the Global Risks Report in 2025. Global Risks Report 2025 66