The 2019 global risks landscape: Top 10 lists

As in previous years, the 14th edition of The Global Risks Report is based on the annual Global Risks Perception Survey (GRPS)1, completed by 1000 members of the World Economic Forum’s global multi-stakeholder community. Respondents are drawn from business, academia, civil society and the public.

The survey asked respondents to consider 30 global risks categorized as societal, technological, economic, environmental or geopolitical, over a 10-year time horizon. 13 global trends were also considered in the survey.

• The survey also asked respondents to assess the development of key risks over the coming 12 months to gain a perspective on the global risks landscape development for the year ahead.
• Environmental risks continue to dominate the GRPS results. This year, they accounted for three of the top five risks by likelihood and five of the top ten by impact. Extreme weather was the risk of greatest concern in terms of likelihood, but survey respondents are increasingly worried about environmental policy failure. Having fallen in the rankings after the 2016 Paris Agreement, “failure of climate-change mitigation and adaptation” jumped back to number two in terms of impact this year. The accelerating pace of biodiversity loss is a particular concern.
• Technology continues to play a profound role in shaping the global risks landscape. Data fraud and cyberattacks were prominent again in the GRPS, which also highlighted a number of other technological vulnerabilities.

Read the 2019 report to see the bigger picture and learn more about the global risks that can impact your company and to build resilience toward these events.