AXA Future Risks Report 2021

Climate change and cyber risk top the list of concerns

1 minute

This edition takes on a special meaning as we gradually emerge from a crisis that revealed the vulnerability of our societies to unexpected risks. In this context, the Future Risks Report perfectly illustrates our mission as an insurer: to protect against the risks of today while driving resilience to future threats.

The report finds that the main risks in the next five to ten years will relate to climate change, cyber security risks and pandemics and infectious diseases.

Climate change returned to the top of the experts’ risk ranking in the 2021 survey, having been displaced by pandemic risk in 2020. We asked experts to rank their top five risks over a five- to ten-year timescale, and it is no surprise to see climate risks back on top after a year of heatwaves, wildfires, floods and freezes.

The survey revealed regional differences: climate concern is higher in Europe than anywhere else, among both experts and the general public. Meanwhile, experts in Africa and the Americas were most pessimistic about their national governments’ preparedness to tackle this risk.

Find out the emerging trends in this video with Thomas Buberl, AXA Group CEO:

Click to discover the key findings of the report

For the 2021 edition, 3,500 experts from over 60 countries and 20,000 respondents from the general public contributed to the survey. This report is produced in partnership with the IPSOS research institute and the geopolitical analysis consultancy Eurasia Group.
Since the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow, the 2021 report includes a focus on the perceptions of younger demographics – especially how respondents under age 25 view future risks.