The Next Crisis summary

When people around the globe reflect on their biggest anxieties, one worry consistently tops the list: the relentless climb in living costs. It’s a concern rooted in daily reality, where inflation, poverty, and widening inequality shape how secure people feel and what kind of future they can imagine.

Take inflation, for example. When wages don’t keep up with rising prices, families feel squeezed at the grocery store, struggle to pay energy bills, and question their financial stability. Recent surveys confirm this isn’t a niche problem but a dominant concern worldwide. From Europe to Latin America, inflation shapes daily decisions and long-term planning, fueling widespread anxiety about the future.

Around the world, after worrying about costs and inequality, people next fret over jobs – specifically, whether there will be enough good jobs for themselves and their families in the years ahead. At the heart of these anxieties are two linked issues: unemployment and immigration.

Unemployment alarms people because it threatens their sense of security and dignity. While joblessness is a global concern, the fear is especially strong in places where unemployment has historically led to severe hardship. Take Britain, for example. Although current unemployment figures are relatively low, memories of mass unemployment in the 1980s and 1990s linger, creating deep-seated fears. Even with plenty of jobs available today, many are low-paid, insecure positions that leave workers financially vulnerable. This insecurity fuels ongoing anxiety and shapes how people perceive newcomers to their communities.

When people worry about war and violence, they aren’t simply afraid of distant conflicts shown on news broadcasts; their anxieties reflect deeper fears about personal security and stability at home. While major international conflicts like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or violence in Gaza grab headlines, surveys show that people’s worries are often much closer to home. Even in relatively safe places, anxieties about potential violence can overshadow more everyday threats, such as failing healthcare, poor nutrition, and environmental dangers like pollution – issues that actually pose far greater risks but seem less frightening because they’re familiar and slow-moving.

Interestingly, these concerns often get distorted by politics. Leaders frequently exploit anxieties about war or terrorism to distract citizens from addressing more local, solvable problems like housing shortages and social inequality. For example, while housing crises in countries like the Netherlands or the UK are largely driven by decades of government policies limiting home availability, politicians sometimes wrongly blame immigrants or refugees to divert public frustration. This misdirection feeds a cycle of fear and suspicion, deepening social divides rather than addressing real underlying issues.

Around the world, people share profound worries about how societies care for us from birth until old age. These concerns aren’t limited to physical health alone; they’re deeply connected to social support systems like education, taxation, and healthcare. While anxiety about personal health is widespread, what varies most is how these issues manifest depending on each country’s resources and priorities.

Take happiness, for example – something that’s easy to overlook as a luxury. Yet surveys show nearly half the global population hasn’t felt genuinely happy for years, highlighting how social conditions directly impact our emotional wellbeing. Scandinavian countries like Finland, Denmark, and Iceland consistently top global happiness rankings, thanks largely to strong social safety nets, reliable healthcare, and educational systems designed to reduce anxiety and uncertainty. In stark contrast, countries struggling with unstable governance or economic turmoil, such as Afghanistan or Lebanon, report dramatically lower happiness scores.

Climate change regularly grabs headlines, yet it’s not the world’s top concern – in fact, surveys show it ranks fifth among global anxieties. One reason is growing skepticism about whether urgent climate action is genuinely affordable or even achievable. Although climate change is real and its impacts are serious – like increased natural disasters and rising sea levels – people worldwide have begun expressing doubt about the sincerity of political commitments. Politicians promising action on climate are often seen as serving their own interests, which only reinforces public cynicism.

Despite multiple record-breaking heatwaves and clear evidence from climate scientists, recent polls reveal a puzzling shift: global willingness to prioritize climate action is declining. Young people, surprisingly, show growing disengagement, especially young men, who increasingly doubt whether moving away from fossil fuels is economically viable. Even respected climate bodies like the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have adjusted their messaging, steering away from catastrophic language to maintain credibility and rebuild consensus.

Biodiversity loss rarely tops the list of global concerns; in fact, surveys consistently show that worries about the environment rank far below immediate issues like inflation, unemployment, and healthcare. Yet, paradoxically, biodiversity is seen by many scientists and environmentalists as perhaps the most profound crisis humanity faces. Why the gap between public concern and expert warnings?

One explanation lies in visibility. Biodiversity decline is slow and subtle, often invisible in day-to-day life. People rarely notice when species vanish, ecosystems degrade, or forests shrink incrementally. But experts see this process clearly: Earth’s diversity of life is shrinking at a troubling rate, mainly due to human encroachment, pollution, and industrial-scale agriculture and fishing.