About the Poll
The first and only global study of people’s perceptions and experiences of risks to their safety.
This page is approximately a 2 minute read
The World Risk Poll is conducted every two years, delivered as a focused part of the Gallup World Poll. Its global coverage is unrivalled – the latest edition, published in 2026, is based on 143,459 interviews in 140 countries. This includes places where little or no official data on safety and risk exists, making the Poll a unique resource for defining the nature and scale of safety challenges across the world.
Overview
The first World Risk Poll was first conducted in 2019, in response to pressing data gaps on risk and safety around the world. Since 2021, the findings of each World Risk Poll have been published in four themed reports, covering some of the biggest risks facing people and communities globally. In 2024, the issues covered include severe weather and climate change resilience, workplace safety, and waste management. In 2026 the issues covered include the everyday risks that touch most lives, and global attitudes to the threat posed by climate change, with two more to follow in 2026. Previous Polls have included risks such as workplace violence and harassment, and AI and data misuse.
A core set of repeating questions in every World Risk Poll explores how perceptions and experiences of risk change over time. Demographic analysis of the Poll also allows us to understand how different groups of people perceive and experience risk differently.
Our aim is to help governments, regulators, businesses, NGOs and international bodies use the findings to inform and target policies and interventions that make people safer, working in partnership with and empowering communities.
We encourage researchers to use the freely available World Risk Poll data for secondary analysis to create deeper insights, and other organisations to partner with us to create programmes and initiatives that help tackle the issues raised.
World Risk Poll Questions
World Risk Poll Questions
Provides full details of all the questions asked in every edition of the World Risk Poll to date.
Download World Risk Poll Questions (PDF, 4.48MB)World Risk Poll 2026 Report Methodology
World Risk Poll 2026 Methodology
Rather than serving as a methodological appendix to a single report, this document is intended as a stand-alone methodological reference for the World Risk Poll 2026 report series. As additional reports are released, this document will be updated.
Download World Risk Poll 2026 Methodology (PDF, 468.87KB)Understanding the Poll
All over the world there are people working to help their communities understand and respond to risks, assessing benefits and trade-offs within their own context. Sense about Science and Lloyd’s Register Foundation are working with many of them to understand and support their needs, including via the Risk Know-How framework. We sought their help to create this guidance for understanding the World Risk Poll.
See more
