Global Risks Report 2026

Infectious diseases Decline in health and well-being Lack of economic opportunity or unemployment INEQUALITY Adverse outcomes of AI technologies Misinformation and disinformation Debt Economic downturn Inflation Pollution Cyber insecurity Asset bubble burst Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse Societal polarization Critical change to Earth systems Natural resource shortages Talent and/or labour shortages Online harms Insufficient public infrastructure and social protections Censorship and surveillance Concentration of strategic resources and technologies Geoeconomic confrontation Involuntary migration or displacement Adverse outcomes of frontier technologies Disruptions to a systemically important supply chain Erosion of human rights and/or of civic freedoms Extreme weather events Disruptions to critical infrastructure State-based armed conflict Non-weather related natural disasters Intrastate violence Crime and illicit economic activity Biological, chemical or nuclear weapons or hazards Infectious diseases Decline in health and well-being Lack of economic opportunity or unemployment INEQUALITY Adverse outcomes of AI technologies Misinformation and disinformation Debt Economic downturn Inflation Pollution Cyber insecurity Asset bubble burst Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse Societal polarization Critical change to Earth systems Natural resource shortages Talent and/or labour shortages Online harms Insufficient public infrastructure and social protections Censorship and surveillance Concentration of strategic resources and technologies Geoeconomic confrontation Involuntary migration or displacement Adverse outcomes of frontier technologies Disruptions to a systemically important supply chain Erosion of human rights and/or of civic freedoms Extreme weather events Disruptions to critical infrastructure State-based armed conflict Non-weather related natural disasters Intrastate violence Crime and illicit economic activity Biological, chemical or nuclear weapons or hazardsGlobal risks landscape: an interconnections map FIGURE 6 Source World Economic Forum Global Risks Perception Survey 2025-2026Edges Relative influence High LowMediumRisk influenceNodes High LowMedium Risk categories Economic Environmental Geopolitical Societal Technological category: societal, technological, environmental, economic and geopolitical. Over the next decade, environmental risks were perceived with the most pessimism out of all risk categories surveyed, with close to three-quarters of respondents selecting either a turbulent or stormy outlook (Figure 8). Chapter 2.5: Infrastructure endangered explores, in part, the effects of continued extreme weather and climate change on ageing infrastructure. From supply-chain chokepoints to strains on electrical grids, critical infrastructure requires renewed attention, with the current risks already playing out and affecting societies globally.A new competitive order is emerging In this period of geoeconomic transformation, alliances are being reshaped and the resilience of markets and of the institutions that emerged from the Bretton Woods Conference of 1944 is being tested. Protectionism, strategic industrial policy and active influence by governments over critical supply chains all signal a world growing more intensely competitive. In this year’s GRPS, 68% of respondents describe the global political Global Risks Report 2026 11