The Global Risks Report 2024

GRPS results for 2024, 2026 and 2034 highlight current crises that corrode resilience, as well as new and rapidly evolving sources of risk that will reshape the next decade. For the one-year time frame, respondents were asked to select up to five risks that they feel are most likely to present a material crisis on a global scale in 2024. Results are summarized in Figure 1.2. After the hottest Northern Hemisphere summer in recorded history in 2023, 2 two-thirds of respondents selected Extreme weather (66%) as the top risk faced in 2024. El Niño, or the warming phase of the alternating El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle, is expected to strengthen and persist until May this year. 3 This could continue to set new records in heat conditions, with extreme heatwaves, drought, wildfires and flooding anticipated. AI-generated misinformation and disinformation (53%) and Societal and/or political polarization (46%) follow in second and third place. Many countries are still struggling to regain lost years of progress that arose from the COVID-19 pandemic, creating fertile ground for misinformation and disinformation to take hold and polarize communities, societies and countries. 25 0 50 75 100 Share of respondents (%)Extreme weather AI-generated misinformation and disinformation Societal and/or political polarization Cost-of-living crisis Cyberattacks Economic downturn Disrupted supply chains for critical goods and resources Escalation or outbreak of interstate armed conflict(s) Attacks on critical infrastructure Disrupted supply chains for food Censorship and erosion of free speech Disrupted supply chains for energy Public debt distress Skills or labour shortages Accidental or intentional nuclear event Violent civil strikes and riots Accidental or intentional release of biological agents Institutional collapse within the financial sector Housing bubble burst Tech bubble burst66% 53% 46% 42% 39% 33% 25% 25% 19% 18% 16% 14% 14% 13% 12% 11% 9% 7% 4% 4%Current risk landscape FIGURE 1.2 Source World Economic Forum Global Risks Perception Survey 2023-2024.“Please select up to five risks that you believe are most likely to present a material crisis on a global scale in 2024.” Risk categories Economic Environmental Geopolitical Societal Technological Global Risks Report 2024 13