The Global Risks Report 2026, published by the World Economic Forum (WEF), provides a sobering overview of the most significant global risks facing the world today, as perceived by a selection of leaders and experts. Now in its 21st edition, the report examines how risks are evolving over time, and how pressures in different domains interact with one another in a period of rapid and far-reaching change.

In this blog, we outline the purpose and scope of the report, summarise key findings across time horizons, highlight several overarching themes, and draw together the main insights that shape the 2026 outlook.

Purpose and Scope

According to Saadia Zahidi, Managing Director, WEF, “The annual Global Risks Report offers a view of global risks at the start of each year, focusing global leaders on addressing emerging challenges and their potential knock-on effects. It does not offer predictions, nor does it suggest that the future is predetermined. Instead, it provides a range of potential futures with a view to prevention and management.”

She notes that the 18th edition examined the possibility of a “polycrisis”, where risks from multiple domains unfold at the same time, while the 21st edition “explores how a new competitive order is taking shape and its impact across multiple concurrent risk domains”. The report describes a global environment shaped by kinetic wars, the strategic use of economic measures, and growing societal fragmentation, occurring alongside longer-term challenges such as technological acceleration and environmental decline, which generate knock-on effects across systems. It also observes that rules and institutions that have long underpinned stability are increasingly strained or ineffective in managing this turbulence.

The Report

For more than two decades, the Global Risks Perception Survey (GRPS) has underpinned the Global Risks Report. This year’s GRPS has brought together the views of more than 1,300 global leaders and experts from academia, business, government, international organisations and civil society. Survey responses were collected between 12 August and 22 September 2025. This data is complemented by the WEF’s Executive Opinion Survey, reflecting responses from more than 11,000 business leaders across 116 economies, as well as expert consultations conducted between May and November 2025.

In the report, “global risk” is defined as “the possibility of the occurrence of an event or condition that, if it occurs, would negatively impact a significant proportion of global GDP, population or natural resources.”

Near-Term Risks (2026-2028)

Over the two-year horizon, respondents identify risks associated with instability, fragmentation and disruption. The following top 10 severe risks during this period were identified as:

1. Geoeconomic confrontation
2. Misinformation and disinformation
3. Societal polarisation
4. Extreme weather events
5. State-based armed conflict
6. Cyber insecurity
7. Inequality
8. Erosion of human rights and/ or civic freedoms
9. Pollution
10. Involuntary migration or displacement.

Environmental risks remain present in the near term but are ranked lower than in longer-term horizons, reflecting differences in perceived immediacy rather than diminished significance.

The report also notes a marked deterioration in the short-term outlook compared with last year, with a 14 percentage-point increase in respondents anticipating a turbulent or stormy global outlook over the next two years. This shift underscores growing concern about the pace and intensity of near-term pressures.

Actions for today: The report highlights the importance of maintaining institutional capacity, protecting information integrity, and managing geo-economic tensions, particularly where declining trust and weakened multilateral mechanisms heighten the risk of escalation.

Longer-Term Risks (to 2036)

Looking ahead 10 years, the risk profile shifts. Environmental and technological risks dominate the long-term outlook, reflecting concerns about cumulative and potentially irreversible impacts. The following top 10 severe risks during this period were identified as:

1. Extreme weather events
2. Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse
3. Critical change to Earth systems
4. Misinformation and disinformation
5. Adverse outcomes of AI technologies
6. Natural resource shortages
7. Inequality
8. Cyber insecurity
9. Societal polarisation
10. Pollution

While perceptions of the long-term outlook remain predominantly negative, the report records a modest improvement compared with last year, including a small increase in respondents anticipating either a calm or stable outlook. This suggests that long-term outcomes are still viewed as contingent on present-day decisions.

The report emphasises that longer-term risk mitigation depends on sustained attention to environmental systems, infrastructure resilience, technological governance and social cohesion, particularly where short-term pressures risk crowding out long-term priorities.

Technology, Inequality, and Interconnection

One of the most notable shifts in the 2026 report is the rise of AI-related risk. Adverse outcomes of AI technologies move from low prominence in the near term to the fifth most severe risk in the 10-year outlook. The report outlines potential impacts including labour-market disruption, challenges to shared understanding of information, and risks associated with military application of AI.

At the same time, the report notes that technological acceleration also brings significant opportunity, including potential advances in health, education, climate modelling and infrastructure, provided governance and safeguards keep pace with innovation.

Across all horizons, inequality is identified as the most interconnected global risk, influencing and amplifying other risks. Related challenges include lack of economic opportunity or unemployment – defined to include erosion of workers’ rights, stagnant wages and displacement linked to automation or transition – as well as talent and labour shortages arising from skills mismatches.

Key Takeaways

Several overarching themes emerge from the 2026 findings:

• Uncertainty shapes both short- and long-term outlooks, with a majority of respondents anticipating turbulent or unsettled global conditions across time horizons.
• Geo-economic confrontation has moved to the centre of the global risk landscape, reflecting a shift toward a more competitive and fragmented international order.
• Technological risks are rising rapidly, with AI-related risks showing the sharpest increase in severity between the near term and the long term.
• Environmental risks are being deprioritised in the near term, even as they remain the most severe risks over the next decade.
• Inequality continues to act as a multiplier, intensifying economic, social and political pressures and weakening institutional resilience.
• Global risks are increasingly interconnected, with cascading effects that extend across systems and timeframes.

Looking Ahead

While the report examines worst-case scenarios, it also notes that new forms of cooperation are emerging even amid competition, and that the global economy has shown elements of resilience in the face of uncertainty.

The report suggests that future outcomes will be shaped by the choices made today – particularly those that strengthen governance, rebuild trust, support cooperation where possible, and balance immediate pressures against longer-term risks.

Conclusion

The Global Risks Report 2026 presents a sobering picture of the perceived global risks shaping our times. It highlights a risk landscape marked by heightened geo-political tension, accelerating technological change, growing social and economic strain, and the continued presence of severe environmental threats. Taken together, the report underscores the challenge – and urgency – of responding to immediate pressures while maintaining focus on longer-term risks in a period of accelerated and far-reaching change.

Read the full report: World Economic Forum, Global Risks Report 2026

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CourtHeath acknowledges the Traditional Aboriginal Owners of Country throughout Victoria and pays respect to Elders past and  present, and to the ongoing living culture of Aboriginal people.

A participant in the UN Global Compact, CourtHeath seeks to raise awareness about the sustainable development goals and the principles of the Global Compact with business and government organisations in Victoria.

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