Crisis resilience crumbles across Europe

The report from Lloyd’s Register Foundation, based on 143,000 Gallup interviews, highlights that 220 million people received no warning before disaster struck. While high-income nations generally benefit from better alert systems, the ability to mobilize once a warning is issued remains alarmingly low. Across the EU, only 59 percent of those warned could take action, trailing the global average of 64 percent and the 71 percent seen in other high-income regions.

Europe’s internal disparities are particularly striking. In France, social resilience has dropped six points since 2021, with only 22 percent of households maintaining a formal disaster plan. The situation in Greece is more severe: just 55 percent of affected individuals received alerts, and only 39 percent of those were able to respond. Beyond physical preparedness, confidence in leadership is eroding, as 44 percent of Europeans believe their governments are indifferent to their safety, a sentiment that reaches 70 percent in Greece. Nancy Hey, director at the Global Safety Evidence Centre, noted that these specific declines in Western Europe are anomalous compared to global trends, suggesting that wealth alone no longer guarantees protection against mounting environmental and social pressures.