AXA Future Risks Report 2023

Over the years, this report has brought a unique overview of tomorrow's major risks provided by an annual survey, and has become a major reference point for our industry and opinion leaders. AXA conducts this survey because risks are central for insurers.

For this 10th edition, the Future Risks Survey again asked people from around the world to rank their top ten future risks, based on their potential impact on society over the next five to ten years.

This year, we surveyed almost 3,500 risk experts from 50 countries. As in previous years, the experts were drawn from AXA and our professional networks. We also partnered with Ipsos to survey close to 20,000 individuals who make up a representative sample from 15 countries.

Thomas Buberl comes back on the importance of this new edition in video.

Everyone, everywhere, is worried about climate change. This year, for the first time, it occupied the top spot for both experts and general public in every single region we surveyed.

Cyber risks return to a strong second place. One in eight experts put cyber risks at the top of their list, up from one in ten last year.

Geopolitical tensions are still a major threat globally. After surging into 2nd place in experts’ lists last year, geopolitical instability remains a close 2nd again in Europe this year but drops in other regions to a ranking of 3rd overall.

Artificial intelligence is alarming experts more than the public. AI-related risks are a big climber in both lists – but while they jump as high as 4th (from 14th) for experts, the public has yet to catch up, with AI still ranking just 11th overall (from 19th).