Biggest perceived global long-term risks to society 2023

Extreme weather events was ranked as the biggest risk to the world, based on a long-term severity index. Respondents around the globe gave the afore mentioned risk an average severity index of six points, being seven the score of highest severity and a score of one the lowest. Furthermore, critical change to the planet's systems got a score of 5.9 points, while biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse got 5.7 points.

Biggest perceived risks to global society as of 2023, by long-term severity

Characteristic	Severity index
-	-
-	-
-	-
-	-
-	-
-	-
-	-
-	-
-	-
-	-

Download

Source

Show detailed source information?

Already a member?

Source

Use Ask Statista Research Service

Release date

January 2024

More information

Region

Worldwide

Survey time period

4 September to 9 October 2023

Number of respondents

1,490 experts

Special properties

Long term threats: 10 years; scale* (1-low severity, 7-high severity)

Supplementary notes

Please estimate the likely impact (severity) of the following risks over a 10-year period.

* Global Severity 10 Years asked respondents to estimate the likely impact (severity) for each of the 32 global risks, on a 1-7 scale [1 – Low severity, 7 – High severity], over both a two-year and 10-year period. Respondents were asked to evaluate the severity, considering the impact on populations, GDP or environmental resources on a global scale. They were also allowed to nominate any other risk considered missing from the 32 global risks. A simple average based on the scores selected was calculated.

Citation formats