Economic Growth

Inflation becomes the leading global concern in 2022

US dollars inflation leading global concern 2022

A worldwide increase of inflation has occurred. Image: Unsplash/Engin Akyurt

Anna Fleck
Data Journalist, Statista
Share:
Our Impact
What's the World Economic Forum doing to accelerate action on Economic Growth?
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Economic Progress is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
Stay up to date:

Economic Progress

  • In the space of 2 years COVID-19 has become a concern of the past, according to Statista.
  • This is because past months have brought droughts, famine, war in Ukraine, a global energy crisis and skyrocketing inflation, the data analytics platform says.
  • The chart below shows that inflation is the number 1 concern, with two-thirds of the 20,000 adults surveyed saying they did not believe their country was on the right track.
  • Poverty and social inequality ranked second on the list of global concerns as of September 2022.

It appears that corona has somehow become a concern of the past, at least for the time being. This perhaps speaks more to the rapid change of new, mounting crises rather than anything else, as the past months have seen droughts, famine, the war in Ukraine, an ensuing energy crisis and skyrocketing inflation.

This chart visualizes just how much can change in the space of two years. According to a survey of nearly 20,000 adults conducted by Ipsos, as many as 50 percent of respondents considered the pandemic a chief concern in January 2021. It has now fallen to a primary worry of only 12 percent - the joint lowest level since the coronavirus pandemic was added to the monthly survey. Inflation follows an opposite trend, however, with only 8 percent of adults stating it was a main concern in September 2020, rising to 40 percent saying it was a worry last month. The countries where most people consider it a major concern for are Poland (67 percent), Argentina (65 percent), Turkey (56 percent) and the UK (56 percent).

Have you read?

The latest data shows that poverty and social inequality come second on the list of concerns as of September 2022, with around one in three respondents around the world selecting it. Hungary (46 percent), the Netherlands (46 percent), Brazil (42 percent), Indonesia (40 percent) and Thailand (40 percent) recorded the highest share of people citing it as a top concern.

When asked whether respondents’ countries were headed in the right direction or not, two thirds of adults said that their country was on the wrong track. Where Saudi Arabians (95 percent) and Indonesians (81 percent) gave the most positive answers, Peruvians (10 percent) and Argentinians (10 percent) were the least optimistic. Meanwhile, the UK and France saw the biggest drops (-9 p.p.).

Inflation becomes the leading global concern in 2022.
Inflation becomes the leading global concern in 2022. Image: Ipsos, Statista
Discover

Beyond GDP: read the full transcript here

Loading...
Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Related topics:
Economic GrowthHealth and Healthcare SystemsEnergy Transition
Share:
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

Europeans are clinging to their savings. What does it mean for growth in the EU?

Spencer Feingold

October 10, 2024

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum