The UK’s Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) will mark its 100th anniversary as a chartered professional body by publishing a series of research reports examining global risk.

The research will consider the changing nature of risk, reflecting on the risks of the last 100 years and considering those of the future.

The CII will publish seven reports during 2012 looking at socio-economic, medical and demographic, environmental and technological risks, including those to do with the global economy, conflict and politics, population, urbanisation, global warming, international energy, international travel, and information and communications technology.

The first report, “Future risk: Learning from History”, looks at some of the key trends of risk in the past and also includes preliminary findings from an opinion poll conducted in five countries into the public’s perceptions of future risks.

The views of interviewees in Australia, Brazil, Great Britain, India and the US were divergent between the developed and developing countries.

Respondents from the developed countries were most concerned about economic decline and rising income inequality and were relatively pessimistic about the future, while those from the developing countries were most worried about overpopulation and fresh water shortages, but were optimistic about the future.