3.0 3.5 2.5 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 1 7 1 7 6.0 Long-term severity (10 years) Visible area Adverse outcomes of AI technologies Adverse outcomes of frontier technologies Asset bubble bursts Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse Biological, chemical or nuclear weapons or hazards Censorship and surveillance Concentration of strategic resources and technologies Crime and illicit economic activity Critical change to Earth systems Cyber insecurity Debt Decline in health and well-being Disruptions to a systemically important supply chain Disruptions to critical infrastructure Economic downturn Erosion of human rights and/or of civic freedoms Extreme weather events Geoeconomic confrontation Inequality Infectious diseases Inﬂation Insufﬁcient public infrastructure and social protections Intrastate violence Involuntary migration or displacement Lack of economic opportunity or unemployment Misinformation and disinformation Natural resource shortages Non-weather related natural disasters Online harms Pollution Societal polarization State-based armed conﬂict Talent and/or labour shortagesRelative severity of global risks, short term (2 years) and long term (10 years) FIGURE 7 Source World Economic Forum Global Risks Perception Survey 2025-2026Note Severity was assessed on a 1-7 Likert scale [1 = Low severity, 7 = High severity]. Short-term severity (2 years) Deteriorating risksRisk categories Economic Environmental Geopolitical Societal Technological environment over the next 10 years as a “multipolar or fragmented order in which middle and great powers contest, set and enforce regional rules and norms”, an increase of four percentage points compared to last year (Figure 9). Only 6% of respondents expect a reinvigoration of the previous unipolar, rules-based international order. The growing shift toward more inward-looking and adversarial policies has cast further uncertainty over the future of multilateralism. As nations increasingly prioritize national interests over collective action, pressing questions emerge about the capacity of the international community to confront shared challenges such as climate change, global health and economic stability – as well as generate the local growth needed for domestic prosperity and stability. In this evolving landscape, global leadership and the values that will underpin the next phase of international cooperation are issues that remain critically unresolved. Yet, history reminds us that order can be rebuilt if nations choose strategic collaboration even amid competition. The future is not a single, fixed path but a range of possible trajectories, each dependent on the decisions we make today as a global community. The challenges highlighted in the GRPS – spanning geopolitical shocks, rapid technological change, climate instability, economic uncertainty and their collective impact on societies – underscore both the scale of the risks we face and our shared responsibility to shape what comes next. Global Risks Report 2026 12