Global Risks 2015

The Global Risks 2015 report identifies 28 global risks across economic, environmental, geopolitical, societal, and technological categories. It highlights a shift toward geopolitical instability, with 'interstate conflict' emerging as a primary concern. The report emphasizes the fragility of societies driven by income inequality and unemployment, the risks of unplanned urbanization in Asia and Africa, and the governance challenges posed by artificial intelligence and synthetic biology. It also provides case studies on water management in Australia, community resilience in the US, and flood risk communication in Germany.

• Interstate conflict has returned as a primary global concern, ranking as the most likely high-impact risk over the next 10 years, reflecting a shift away from the economic dominance of previous reports.
• Societal fragility is increasing, driven by widening socio-economic inequality within countries; for example, the richest 10% in OECD countries earn about nine times more than the poorest 10%, and this ratio exceeds 25 times in Mexico.
• Environmental risks are perceived as highly impactful but poorly addressed, with water crises ranked as the most potentially impactful risk for the coming decade.
• Rapid and unplanned urbanization in developing countries, particularly in Asia and Africa, creates significant vulnerabilities to pandemics, social unrest, and infrastructure failure, with 40% of urban expansion occurring in slums.
• Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and synthetic biology offer high potential but present existential risks and governance gaps, as current regulatory frameworks are often insufficient or non-existent.
• There is a growing trend of 'geo-economics' where states use economic tools, such as sanctions and state-led infrastructure investments, to gain relative geopolitical power, potentially undermining the international rule-based system.
• Regional preparedness for global risks varies significantly: Europe is least prepared for structural unemployment, North America for critical infrastructure failure and cyber attacks, and Sub-Saharan Africa for infectious diseases.
• The report highlights three successful resilience practices: the Murray-Darling Basin's interdisciplinary water modeling in Australia, the Resilient America Roundtable's bottom-up community approach in the US, and the ZÜRS Public flood risk communication tool in Germany.

APA

World Economic Forum (2015). Global Risks 2015. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Global_Risks_2015_Report15.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Global Risks 2015. 2015. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Global_Risks_2015_Report15.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Global Risks 2015 |date=2015 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Global_Risks_2015_Report15.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2015global, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Global Risks 2015}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2015}, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Global_Risks_2015_Report15.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }