Geneva, January 21:

A survey of leaders from the political, business and religious spheres has found that a majority think the next generation will live in a more economically prosperous but less safe world, the World Economic Forum (WEF) said.

The WEF surveyed 2,500 world leaders who will take part in the organisation’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland from January 25-29. Nearly two-thirds (65 per cent) think the world will be a ‘lot more’ or a ‘little more’ prosperous.

However, 55 per cent of the respondents felt that the next generation would live in a world that is ‘a little less safe’ or ‘a lot less safe.’ The leaders’ outlook appears to differ from the results of a major poll last year which sought the opinions of ‘ordinary citizens’ worldwide on the same issues.

Gallup International’s ‘Voice of the People’ survey, undertaken in November-December 2005, interviewed close to 50,000 people in more than 60 countries and asked the same questions that were put to the Davos leaders. However, they had a more negative outlook about the world economy, with only 43 per cent thinking the next generation would be better off.

“It is clear from this survey that the leaders who will be gathering in Davos view the world and its problems in a different way than the wider global population,” said Peter Torreele, the WEF’s managing director, “They share the same concerns about security, but they often have very different priorities. It is important that the participants in Davos take into account the hopes and fears of a wider population.”

The surveys also found that the two top priorities for world leaders and for ordinary citizens were economic growth, and closing the gap between the rich and poor countries.