Trend Trend A: Deepening social polarisation and inequality

Summary

Economic wealth and income, educational opportunity and social resources are concentrating in a small upper class, squeezing the middle class and splitting society into top and bottom layers. As gaps between classes widen and social mobility narrows, inequality becomes entrenched. The trend sits under the megatrend of social change and value diversification and groups issues on employment polarisation and income and asset gaps, safety nets for vulnerable groups, unequal access to education, the rise of techno-feudalism and a return to tribalism. In the 2025 survey, experts counted it among the trends with the largest impact, and the public judged it both hard to predict and highly consequential. It was therefore one of six driver candidates from the survey, although it was not among the three dominant drivers finally selected.