This year’s report contextualizes the analysis through four structural forces that will shape the materialization and management of global risks over the next decade. These are longer-term shifts in the arrangement of and relationship between four systemic elements of the global landscape:

1. Trajectories relating to global warming and related consequences to Earth systems (Climate change).
2. Changes in the size, growth and structure of populations around the world (Demographic bifurcation).
3. Developmental pathways for frontier technologies (Technological acceleration).
4. Material evolution in the concentration and sources of geopolitical power (Geostrategic shifts).

A new set of global conditions is taking shape across each of these domains and these transitions will be characterized by uncertainty and volatility. As societies seek to adapt to these changing forces, their capacity to prepare for and respond to global risks will be affected.