A fragile recovery: global social resilience increases amid new risks

Allianz's 5th Social Resilience Index (SRI), which reviews 171 countries based on their economic, institutional, and social frameworks, reveals that social resilience worldwide has slightly increased. The overall ranking shows a third consecutive – though modest – improvement in global resilience from 47.4 (0–100) in 2024 to 47.9 today. This analysis by Allianz Economic Research provides a global view of resilience drivers and risk factors and is the basis for Allianz’s Power of Unity program, a multi-pronged global approach to address economic and social risks in a polarized world through research, debate, and understanding what communities need in order to thrive.

Social resilience is key to a country’s success. It fosters stable economies, trusted institutions, and connected communities, leading to stronger GDP growth, robust capital markets, and greater investor confidence. Over the past months, progress was made: reduced inflation pressures and greater currency stability led to greater resilience in Emerging Asia and several advanced economies. Firmer governance and institutional stabilization contributed to further progress in parts of Emerging Asia and Central Europe. Nordic countries Finland, Denmark and Iceland take the global lead in the overall ranking. 

“The Social Resilience Index provides a unique lens to understand the structural drivers of economic and social stability, offering actionable insights into the factors that help communities thrive. By identifying resilience gaps and risks, it serves as an early-warning system for policymakers, investors, and leaders to anticipate challenges and foster sustainable growth”, said Ludovic Subran, Chief Investment Officer and Chief Economist at Allianz.

While global resilience has improved slightly, significant disparities remain entrenched, with high-income economies averaging a score of 70.5 out of 100 – far ahead of regions like the Middle East (53.8), Emerging Europe (48.4), Emerging Asia (44.3), Latin America (44.2), and Africa (34.4). Germany, France and the United Kingdom remain firmly placed in the top tier, while Italy and the United States sit lower but still within the top third. Large emerging markets occupy significantly weaker positions and conflict-affected states such as Lebanon and South Sudan anchor the bottom. Although movement is limited for most countries, there are exceptions: Sri Lanka and India have significantly improved their social resilience, while Brazil and the Czech Republic experienced the sharpest declines.
Against the backdrop of uneven resilience across regions, the escalation of conflict in the Middle East could test societies through renewed energy price shocks. Europe is structurally more exposed than the US due to its greater reliance on imported energy, while the greatest risks are concentrated in emerging markets with weaker resilience and limited fiscal buffers. Countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Morocco, Tunisia and Malaysia combine lower resilience with high exposure to food and fuel imports, making them particularly vulnerable to rising energy prices.
Despite slight global improvements in social resilience since the index’s inception in 2005 (from 46.3 to 47.9 in 2025), many countries remain stuck in the middle. Economies like Czechia, Hungary, Italy, the United States, and Japan face a paradox where material prosperity coexists with rising polarization and policy volatility, threatening long-term growth, political stability, and reform capacity. In fact, between 2020 and 2025, mid-resilience countries – including India, Indonesia, South Korea, the UK, and the US – were responsible for 70% of global strikes, riots, and civil commotion (SRCC) events, highlighting how polarization and institutional strain can fuel sustained social unrest.
The SRI’s findings highlight the critical link between social resilience, economic growth, and market stability, emphasizing the need for strong, cohesive communities to counter growing polarization worldwide. Allianz’s Power of Unity program was launched in 2024 to bridge these gaps by fostering dialogue, promoting understanding, and rebuilding trust in societal institutions, ultimately reducing polarization and fostering long-term stability.
The 2025 SRI is propriety research published for the 5th time by the Economic Research team at Allianz. It assesses 171 economies on a 0–100 scale, combining economic strength, institutional quality, social cohesion and shock‑absorption capacity to gauge countries’ ability to withstand and adapt to structural pressures. Acting as an early-warning system, the SRI predicts sovereign stress up to 24 months in advance.

Ludovic Subran
Allianz Investment Management SE

Katharina Utermöhl
Allianz Investment Management SE

 

Simon Krause
Allianz Investment Management SE

Luca Moneta
Allianz Trade

Patrick Krizan
Allianz Investment Management SE

The Allianz Group is one of the world’s leading insurers and asset managers, active in almost 70 countries and serving around 97 million private and corporate customers*. Allianz customers benefit from a broad range of personal and corporate insurance services, ranging from property, life and health insurance to assistance services to credit insurance and global business insurance. Allianz is one of the world’s largest investors, managing around 764 billion euros** on behalf of its insurance customers. Furthermore, our asset managers PIMCO and Allianz Global Investors manage about 2.0 trillion euros** of third-party assets. Thanks to our systematic integration of ecological and social criteria in our business processes and investment decisions, we are among the leaders in the insurance industry in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. In 2025, over 156,000 employees achieved total business volume of 186.9 billion euros and an operating profit of 17.4 billion euros for the Group.

* Customer count reflects Allianz customers in consolidated entities that are part of the customer reporting scope only.

** As of December 31, 2025.

As with all content published on this site, these statements are subject to our cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements:
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Mar 11, 2026 | Media release, Power of Unity

A fragile recovery: global social resilience increases amid new risks

A worldwide index by Allianz Economic Research shows a slight increase in social resilience in 2025. This increase is driven by reduced inflation, currency stability, and firmer governance. However, some of these gains could be put to the test by a renewed energy shock triggered by the conflict in the Middle East.

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