Datastream

Which Global Risks Have Worsened During the Pandemic?

Published

3 years ago

January 28, 2022

Carmen Ang

What Global Risks Have Worsened Since COVID-19

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The Briefing

A new report from WEF found that social cohesion and overall livelihood have worsened the most since the start of the pandemic
Policy measures and economic impacts from COVID-19 have exacerbated inequality, which has increased polarization and resentment among communities

The Global Risks That Have Gotten Worse Since COVID-19

Each year, the World Economic Forum (WEF) puts together its Global Risks Report, an analysis of the top risks that pose a threat to the world.

The report includes data from nearly 1,000 surveyed leaders, across various organizations and regions. In this year’s report, respondents were asked which global risks have gotten worse since the start of the pandemic.

Here’s what they said.

Social Threats

According to respondents, the erosion of social cohesion is the global risk that has intensified the most since the start of the global pandemic. The WEF defines this as the loss of social capital or social stability.

Risk	Category	% of respondents
Social cohesion erosion	Societal	27.8%
Livelihood crises	Societal	25.5%
Climate action failure	Environmental	25.4%
Mental health deterioration	Societal	23.0%
Extreme weather	Environmental	22.7%
Debt crises	Economic	13.8%
Cybersecurity failures	Technological	12.4%
Infectious diseases	Societal	10.9%
Digital inequality	Technological	10.5%
Backlash against science	Societal	9.5%
Biodiversity loss	Environmental	8.4%
Geoeconomic confrontations	Geopolitical	8.2%
Human environmental damage	Environmental	7.8%
Youth disillusionment	Societal	7.1%
Interstate relations fracture	Geopolitical	7.0%
Prolonged stagnation	Economic	6.9%
Asset bubble burst	Economic	6.7%
Social security collapse	Societal	6.2%
Involuntary migration	Societal	5.4%
Adverse tech advances	Technological	5.3%
Tech governance failure	Technological	4.5%
Geopolitical resource contestation	Geopolitical	4.4%
Digital power concentration	Technological	4.3%
Public infrastructure failure	Societal	4.2%
Industry collapse	Economic	4.1%
Price instability	Economic	3.3%
Commodity shocks	Economic	3.0%
Interstate conflict	Geopolitical	2.9%
Natural resource crises	Environmental	2.7%
State collapse	Geopolitical	2.6%
IT infrastructure breakdown	Technological	2.4%
Multilateralism collapse	Geopolitical	2.2%
Illicit economic activity	Economic	2.2%
Pollution harms to health	Societal	1.9%
Terrorist attacks	Geopolitical	1.6%
Geophysical disasters	Environmental	0.8%
Weapons of mass destruction	Geopolitical	0.3%

Inequality existed long before COVID-19, but the pandemic has only made things worse.

For example, employment recovery has been uneven across the United States. High-wage workers have seen employment rates bounce back fairly quickly after their Spring 2020 slump, while low-wage workers haven’t recovered at the same rate.

As of August 2021, employment rates for those making below $27K a year were still down 25% compared to pre-pandemic levels.

Environmental Threats

In addition to societal threats, a couple environmental risks made it to the top of the list as well. Both Climate action failure and extreme weather were in the top five.

Considering how difficult it’s been for international governments to collaborate on COVID-19 relief efforts, respondents feel less than optimistic that we’ll manage to seamlessly deal with the chaos that could come from environmental risks, which are similarly complex.

Which global risk do you think has worsened the most since the start of the pandemic?

Where does this data come from?

Source: WEF Global Risks Report 2022
Details: Data in this report is from the The Global Risks Perception Survey (GRPS), the World Economic Forum’s source of original risks data. Survey responses were collected from 8 September to 12 October 2021. See the report for full details on methodology.