Ranked: The 28 Biggest Global Risks, According to the UN

Kayla Zhu
2025-07-14 10:49:00
www.visualcapitalist.com

See this visualization first on the Voronoi app.

Most Pressing Global Risks 2024

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As the world confronts overlapping crises, from accelerating climate change to the unchecked spread of misinformation, global risks are increasingly interconnected, compounding one another in ways that could overwhelm current institutions and systems.

This visualization shows the top 28 most important global risk as outlined in the United Nations Global Risk Report 2024.

Risk importance combines the likelihood and severity of a risk, with top risks seen as most likely to occur with severe impacts if or when they manifest.

Rankings are based on a survey of 1,100 stakeholders across 136 countries which includes representatives of government, industry, civil society, and academia.

What is the Most Important Risk the World is Facing?

Below, we show the top 28 most important global risks and their importance scores, according to the United Nations.

Rank	Risk	Importance Score	Category
1	Climate Change Inaction	37.2	Environmental
2	Large-Scale Pollution	36.0	Environmental
3	Mis- and Disinformation	35.4	Political
4	Natural Hazard Risks	35.0	Environmental
5	Rise in Inequalities	34.7	Societal
6	Biodiversity Decline	34.6	Environmental
7	Geopolitical Tensions	34.5	Political
8	Natural Resource Shortages	34.3	Environmental
9	Mass Movement of People	33.2	Societal
10	Large-Scale War	32.6	Political
11	Biorisks	32.3	Societal
12	New Pandemic	32.1	Societal
13	Rule of Law Collapse	32.0	Political
14	Cybersecurity Breakdown	31.7	Technological
15	Global Financial Crisis	31.6	Economic
16	Weapons of Mass Destruction	31.1	Political
17	AI and Frontier Tech	31.0	Technological
18	Proliferation of Non-State Actors	30.8	Societal
19	Tech-Driven Power Concentration	30.8	Technological
20	Social Cohesion Collapse	30.4	Societal
21	Widespread Debt Crisis	30.2	Economic
22	Economic Fragmentation	29.1	Economic
23	State Sovereignty Erosion	28.5	Political
24	Global Economic Stagnation	27.9	Economic
25	Supply Chain Collapse	27.8	Economic
26	Geoengineering Disasters	27.5	Technological
27	Multilateral Institution Collapse	26.3	Political
28	Space-Based Event	23.4	Environmental

Across all regions, environmental risks emerged as the highest priority, with climate change inaction and large-scale pollution both seen as highly likely and highly severe.

Climate change inaction was the most important risk overall, ranking as the most pressing issue in three of the seven regions.

In total, 84% of respondents said mis- and disinformation is already occurring, making it the most immediate risk today, according to the UN.

Mis- and disinformation also ranked as the top risk in the next two years, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risk Report.

While environmental concerns were top of mind for all regions, other perceptions varied by region. For example, in North Africa and Asia, concerns about cybersecurity breakdowns and artificial intelligence (AI) were among the top 10 risks, unlike in other regions.

Cybersecurity breakdowns were among the least prepared-for risks, with a preparedness score of just 3.9 out of 7. The only risk the world is less prepared for is a potential space-based event.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To learn more about risks the world is facing in the near and long term, check out this graphic that visualizes the top global risks, as ranked by the World Economic Forum.

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