Every major problem in the world, ranked by what it actually costs.

Warming driven by greenhouse gas emissions is raising mortality, displacement and economic damage across every region.

Deaths

250 thousand

(per year (projected))

Impacted

3.3 billion

Cost

$1.4 trillion

Trend

Worsening

Fine particulate and ozone pollution is one of the largest single killers on earth, concentrated in Asia and Africa.

Deaths

6.7 million

(per year)

Impacted

9 billion

Cost

$8.1 trillion

Trend

Steady

Hundreds of millions face chronic undernourishment; tens of millions face emergency or famine conditions.

Deaths

9 million

(per year)

Impacted

733 million

Cost

$3.5 trillion

Trend

Worsening

The largest interstate war in Europe since 1945, with mass casualties, displacement and global food and energy shocks.

Deaths

500 thousand

(since Feb 2022)

Impacted

44 million

Cost

$600 billion

Trend

Worsening

Drug-resistant infections already kill more than HIV or malaria and are projected to accelerate sharply.

Deaths

1.3 million

(per year)

Impacted

9 billion

Cost

$1 trillion

Trend

Worsening

Billions lack safely managed water or sanitation, driving preventable disease deaths concentrated in children.

Deaths

1.4 million

(per year)

Impacted

3.5 billion

Cost

$260 billion

Trend

Improving

Road crashes are the leading killer of young people worldwide and a top-ten cause of death overall.

Deaths

1.2 million

(per year)

Impacted

50 million

Cost

$1.8 trillion

Trend

Steady

Decades of overlapping armed conflict in a mineral-rich region, with mass displacement and one of the highest excess-death tolls of the modern era.

Deaths

6 million

(since 1996)

Impacted

25 million

Cost

$30 billion

Trend

Worsening

More than 700,000 people die by suicide each year and a billion live with a mental health condition.

Deaths

727 thousand

(per year)

Impacted

970 million

Cost

$1 trillion

Trend

Worsening

The single largest killer of humans, and largely preventable.

Deaths

20 million

(per year)

Impacted

600 million

Cost

$1 trillion

Trend

Worsening

Fourteen years of war left a shattered state, mass displacement and a stalled recovery.

Deaths

600 thousand

(since 2011)

Impacted

17 million

Cost

$400 billion

Trend

Steady

Wildlife populations have fallen catastrophically and extinction rates are far above the natural background.

Deaths

—

Impacted

3 billion

Cost

$2.7 trillion

Trend

Worsening

Fighting between the army and the RSF has produced the world's largest displacement and hunger crisis.

Deaths

150 thousand

(since Apr 2023)

Impacted

30 million

Cost

$30 billion

Trend

Worsening

Hundreds of millions of people live below the level the sea is heading for.

Deaths

—

Impacted

900 million

Cost

$14 trillion

Trend

Worsening

The second largest cause of death worldwide, rising as populations age and screening lags in poorer countries.

Deaths

9.7 million

(per year)

Impacted

20 million

Cost

$1.2 trillion

Trend

Worsening

A metabolic epidemic reshaping health systems in every income bracket.

Deaths

3.4 million

(per year)

Impacted

1.8 billion

Cost

$1 trillion

Trend

Worsening

A neurotoxin still circulating in paint, cookware, batteries and spices, costing children measurable IQ.

Deaths

1.5 million

(per year)

Impacted

800 million

Cost

$6 trillion

Trend

Steady

The largest preventable cause of death on earth.

Deaths

8 million

(per year)

Impacted

1.3 billion

Cost

$1.4 trillion

Trend

Improving

Fire seasons are lengthening and burning places that historically did not burn.

Deaths

300 thousand

(per year)

Impacted

400 million

Cost

$150 billion

Trend

Worsening

Storms are intensifying faster and carrying more water than the infrastructure was built for.

Deaths

15 thousand

(per year)

Impacted

700 million

Cost

$150 billion

Trend

Worsening

The world remains structurally unprepared for the next respiratory pandemic.

Deaths

—

Impacted

8 billion

Cost

$14 trillion

Trend

Worsening

Industrial chemicals that do not break down are now in almost every human bloodstream.

Deaths

—

Impacted

4 billion

Cost

$17 trillion

Trend

Worsening

Over 120 million people have been forced from their homes, the highest number ever recorded.

Deaths

—

Impacted

122 million

Cost

$400 billion

Trend

Worsening

Years of war have left over half the population needing aid, with famine risk and collapsed health services.

Deaths

377 thousand

(since 2014)

Impacted

22 million

Cost

$126 billion

Trend

Steady

Forest loss continues at millions of hectares per year, undermining climate stability, water cycles and food systems.

Deaths

—

Impacted

1.6 billion

Cost

$600 billion

Trend

Worsening

Aquifers that took millennia to fill are being drained within a lifetime.

Deaths

—

Impacted

2 billion

Cost

$500 billion

Trend

Worsening

Millions of children and hundreds of thousands of mothers die each year from largely preventable causes.

Deaths

5.1 million

(per year)

Impacted

300 million

Cost

$300 billion

Trend

Improving

Fighting in Amhara and Oromia continues after the Tigray war, with severe humanitarian consequences.

Deaths

600 thousand

(2020-2022)

Impacted

21 million

Cost

—

Trend

Worsening

Cooking on solid fuel kills millions, almost entirely women and children.

Deaths

3.2 million

(per year)

Impacted

2.1 billion

Cost

—

Trend

Improving

A nationwide armed resistance to military rule has produced mass displacement, airstrikes on civilians and economic collapse.

Deaths

75 thousand

(since 2021)

Impacted

19 million

Cost

$20 billion

Trend

Worsening

Intense urban warfare has killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly the whole population of the Gaza Strip.

Deaths

50 thousand

(since Oct 2023)

Impacted

2.2 million

Cost

$50 billion

Trend

Steady

Hundreds of millions of tonnes of plastic enter the environment yearly, with microplastics now found in human tissue.

Deaths

—

Impacted

9 billion

Cost

$600 billion

Trend

Worsening

A third of the world topsoil is degraded and it forms far slower than it is lost.

Deaths

—

Impacted

3.2 billion

Cost

$400 billion

Trend

Worsening

Around seven hundred million people live on less than the international poverty line.

Deaths

—

Impacted

700 million

Cost

—

Trend

Steady

A rapidly growing burden with no cure and enormous unpaid care costs.

Deaths

1.8 million

(per year)

Impacted

57 million

Cost

$1.3 trillion

Trend

Worsening

Jihadist insurgency and state collapse across Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have made the Sahel the global epicentre of terrorism deaths.

Deaths

60 thousand

(since 2012)

Impacted

33 million

Cost

$15 billion

Trend

Worsening

Economic collapse, aid cuts and systematic exclusion of women have created one of the largest aid caseloads in the world.

Deaths

—

Impacted

24 million

Cost

$25 billion

Trend

Worsening

The most widespread human rights violation in the world, and among the least prosecuted.

Deaths

50 thousand

(per year)

Impacted

736 million

Cost

$1.5 trillion

Trend

Steady

Synthesis capability is spreading faster than the controls on it.

Deaths

—

Impacted

8 billion

Cost

—

Trend

Worsening

Tens of millions live in unreinforced buildings on known active faults.

Deaths

60 thousand

(per year)

Impacted

300 million

Cost

$1 trillion

Trend

Worsening

Synthetic opioids have driven the deadliest drug epidemic in recorded history, concentrated in North America.

Deaths

110 thousand

(per year (peak))

Impacted

50 million

Cost

$1.5 trillion

Trend

Improving

The frozen reservoirs that supply seasonal water to two billion people are shrinking.

Deaths

—

Impacted

1.9 billion

Cost

$200 billion

Trend

Worsening

Political violence, flooding and economic collapse in the world youngest country.

Deaths

400 thousand

(since 2013)

Impacted

9 million

Cost

—

Trend

Worsening

Insurgency in the northeast and armed banditry in the northwest have displaced millions.

Deaths

120 thousand

(since 2009)

Impacted

25 million

Cost

—

Trend

Worsening

A fast-moving technology with capabilities outrunning any governance mechanism.

Deaths

—

Impacted

8 billion

Cost

—

Trend

Worsening

Dozens of countries now spend more on debt service than on health or education.

Deaths

—

Impacted

3.3 billion

Cost

$1.4 trillion

Trend

Worsening

The deadliest infectious disease in the world, curable but persistently underfunded.

Deaths

1.3 million

(per year)

Impacted

11 million

Cost

$50 billion

Trend

Improving

Productive land is turning to desert across the Sahel, Central Asia and northern China.

Deaths

—

Impacted

1.8 billion

Cost

$300 billion

Trend

Worsening

A preventable mosquito-borne disease that still kills a child roughly every minute.

Deaths

600 thousand

(per year)

Impacted

263 million

Cost

$12 billion

Trend

Steady

A potential conflict that would be the largest economic shock in modern history.

Deaths

—

Impacted

24 million

Cost

$10 trillion

Trend

Worsening

Lung disease driven by smoke, dust and polluted air, concentrated in the poorest households.

Deaths

4 million

(per year)

Impacted

545 million

Cost

—

Trend

Steady

The chemistry of the ocean is changing faster than at any point in millions of years.

Deaths

—

Impacted

3 billion

Cost

$1 trillion

Trend

Worsening

Post-peace-deal fragmentation has left armed groups controlling large rural areas.

Deaths

450 thousand

(since 1985)

Impacted

9 million

Cost

—

Trend

Worsening

Roughly 50 million people live in forced labour or forced marriage, embedded in global supply chains.

Deaths

—

Impacted

50 million

Cost

$150 billion

Trend

Worsening

The rainforest is approaching the point where it becomes savanna and cannot return.

Deaths

—

Impacted

400 million

Cost

$300 billion

Trend

Worsening

Digital crime causes trillions in losses annually and increasingly disrupts hospitals, utilities and government services.

Deaths

—

Impacted

1.5 billion

Cost

$9.5 trillion

Trend

Worsening

Price spikes push tens of millions into hunger faster than any drought.

Deaths

—

Impacted

1 billion

Cost

—

Trend

Steady

Deaths, violence and disease from a substance most societies treat as unremarkable.

Deaths

2.6 million

(per year)

Impacted

400 million

Cost

$800 billion

Trend

Steady

Insurgency, clan conflict and repeated drought compound one of the worst humanitarian situations on earth.

Deaths

40 thousand

(past decade)

Impacted

6.9 million

Cost

—

Trend

Worsening

Repeated mass bleaching is dismantling the most biodiverse marine ecosystem.

Deaths

—

Impacted

1 billion

Cost

$375 billion

Trend

Worsening

Health systems are short millions of staff, and the gap is widening where need is greatest.

Deaths

—

Impacted

3 billion

Cost

—

Trend

Worsening

The animals that pollinate a third of our food are disappearing.

Deaths

—

Impacted

2 billion

Cost

$500 billion

Trend

Worsening

Wealth concentration is at levels that distort politics as well as economies.

Deaths

—

Impacted

5 billion

Cost

—

Trend

Worsening

Money that should fund states is moved offshore at a scale that dwarfs aid.

Deaths

—

Impacted

4 billion

Cost

$1 trillion

Trend

Steady

One of the highest absolute homicide counts in the world outside a declared war.

Deaths

30 thousand

(per year)

Impacted

115 thousand

Cost

$60 billion

Trend

Steady

A currency collapse and a border war layered on top of each other.

Deaths

4 thousand

(2023-2024)

Impacted

3.9 million

Cost

$80 billion

Trend

Worsening

A treatable pandemic that still kills hundreds of thousands a year because treatment reaches unevenly.

Deaths

630 thousand

(per year)

Impacted

40 million

Cost

$20 billion

Trend

Improving

A third of global fish stocks are harvested beyond biological limits.

Deaths

—

Impacted

600 million

Cost

$80 billion

Trend

Worsening

Most children in poor countries cannot read a simple story by age ten.

Deaths

—

Impacted

500 million

Cost

$21 trillion

Trend

Worsening

Shelter has become unaffordable across most of the urban world.

Deaths

—

Impacted

1.1 billion

Cost

—

Trend

Worsening

The largest displacement crisis in the Western Hemisphere.

Deaths

—

Impacted

19 million

Cost

—

Trend

Steady

More people now live under autocratising governments than democratising ones.

Deaths

—

Impacted

5 billion

Cost

—

Trend

Worsening

Armed gangs control most of the capital amid state failure, hunger and mass displacement.

Deaths

12 thousand

(per year)

Impacted

5.5 million

Cost

$5 billion

Trend

Worsening

Children still die in large numbers from an illness treatable with salt, sugar and clean water.

Deaths

1.2 million

(per year)

Impacted

1.7 billion

Cost

—

Trend

Improving

Shared facts are becoming scarce at the moment they are most needed.

Deaths

—

Impacted

5 billion

Cost

$80 billion

Trend

Worsening

Automation is arriving in white-collar work faster than retraining systems can respond.

Deaths

—

Impacted

300 million

Cost

—

Trend

Worsening

A sixth of humanity is systematically shut out of work, transport and education.

Deaths

—

Impacted

1.3 billion

Cost

$2 trillion

Trend

Steady

A curable and preventable infection that still kills more people than malaria.

Deaths

1.3 million

(per year)

Impacted

300 million

Cost

—

Trend

Worsening

A cascade in low earth orbit would take out the systems everything else depends on.

Deaths

—

Impacted

8 billion

Cost

$2 trillion

Trend

Worsening

A nuclear-armed standoff alongside one of the most severe closed-country humanitarian situations.

Deaths

—

Impacted

12 million

Cost

—

Trend

Worsening

One in ten children worldwide is working, and the number rose for the first time in decades.

Deaths

—

Impacted

160 million

Cost

—

Trend

Worsening

A carbon store twice the size of the atmosphere is beginning to release.

Deaths

—

Impacted

5 million

Cost

$70 billion

Trend

Worsening

The most effective forest guardians are being killed for doing it.

Deaths

200

(per year)

Impacted

476 million

Cost

—

Trend

Worsening

Global trade runs through a handful of straits, canals and factories.

Deaths

—

Impacted

2 billion

Cost

$500 billion

Trend

Worsening

Arms control has collapsed while nuclear arsenals modernise, creating the highest escalation risk in decades.

Deaths

0

(potential)

Impacted

8 billion

Cost

$0

Trend

Worsening

Sixty million tonnes a year of toxic waste, mostly dismantled by hand.

Deaths

—

Impacted

18 million

Cost

$60 billion

Trend

Worsening

A group of disabling infections affecting more than a billion people and attracting little funding.

Deaths

200 thousand

(per year)

Impacted

1.6 billion

Cost

—

Trend

Improving

Twelve million girls are married before eighteen every year.

Deaths

—

Impacted

640 million

Cost

—

Trend

Improving

Somalia's drought emergency is driving a sharp rise in severe child malnutrition, with admissions reportedly nearly tripling in six months.

Deaths

—

Impacted

—

Cost

—

Trend

Worsening

A demographic bulge meeting an economy with nowhere to put it.

Deaths

—

Impacted

270 million

Cost

—

Trend

Worsening

A stateless population in indefinite camp confinement with shrinking rations.

Deaths

25 thousand

(2017)

Impacted

2.4 million

Cost

—

Trend

Worsening

Falling routine immunisation is reopening doors that were closed decades ago.

Deaths

—

Impacted

14 million

Cost

—

Trend

Worsening

A large, poorly measured chronic illness burden left behind by the pandemic.

Deaths

—

Impacted

65 million

Cost

$1 trillion

Trend

Steady

Commercial spyware and biometric surveillance are now standard instruments of repression.

Deaths

—

Impacted

3 billion

Cost

—

Trend

Worsening

A vaccine-preventable disease returning as immunisation coverage slips.

Deaths

108 thousand

(per year)

Impacted

10 million

Cost

—

Trend

Worsening

A militarised territorial dispute between two nuclear-armed states.

Deaths

45 thousand

(since 1989)

Impacted

13 million

Cost

—

Trend

Steady

Journalism is being criminalised in more countries every year.

Deaths

120

(per year)

Impacted

4 billion

Cost

—

Trend

Worsening

An Islamist insurgency in northern Mozambique sitting on top of a major gas project.

Deaths

6 thousand

(since 2017)

Impacted

1.3 million

Cost

—

Trend

Worsening

A long-running armed conflict that has displaced a fifth of the population.

Deaths

12 thousand

(past decade)

Impacted

2.8 million

Cost

—

Trend

Steady

A divided state, migrant abuse and periodic armed clashes over a decade after the civil war.

Deaths

30 thousand

(since 2011)

Impacted

1.2 million

Cost

—

Trend

Steady