A note on the purpose of The Human Stability Index 

The Human Stability Index was created to address a growing gap in how global conditions are understood. Traditional indicators describe economic performance, conflict intensity, or environmental change in isolation. Yet instability increasingly emerges not from single failures, but from interacting pressures - where economic strain, conflict exposure, climate stress, technological disruption, and social fragmentation reinforce one another faster than institutions can adapt. The Human Stability Index does not seek to rank countries, predict crises, or recommend policy. Its purpose is more fundamental: to make human stability observable as a system condition, and to provide a consistent reference against which change can be measured over time. The Baseline Report 2026 establishes the initial reference state. It captures the prevailing global environment at a moment defined by geopolitical fragmentation, environmental stress, rapid technological change, and declining trust. Future editions of the index will measure movement relative to this baseline - highlighting where stability is strengthening, where it is eroding, and where risk is compounding. This work is offered as a public analytical reference. It is intended to support governments, institutions, businesses, researchers, and individuals seeking to understand not only where the world is unstable today, but how instability forms - and how it spreads. Human stability is not the absence of disruption. It is the presence of sufficient buffers, trust, and coordination capacity to withstand it. The Human Stability Index exists to make that condition visible.