What scares you right now? Some readers might be tempted to reply “almost everything”, given the current grim confluence of political, economic and pandemic news.

Each year, however, Axa, the large French insurance company, tries to explore this question further. This year, it surveyed 20,000 members of the public and a panel of risk experts around the world with market research group Ipsos and the Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy. The results (presented in a webinar in which I recently participated) are thought-provoking.

Two years ago, pandemic risks were deemed to be the 10th scariest “emerging” threat — behind the dangers from “medical advances and innovations” such as genetic modification. Back then, climate change topped the list of terrors, as it has done in most years recently, followed by cyber-security concerns, fears about geopolitics, managing natural resources and local social strife.