The official setting is a symbolic assessment of global risks, not a live countdown. Explore the historical decisions below to see when the Clock moved and the reasons the Bulletin gave.
The number remains at 85 until the Bulletin announces a new setting. It does not mean a catastrophe is predicted to happen in 85 seconds.
Read the official 2026 statement ↗A developing news feed covering nuclear risk, conflict, climate, health, technology and critical infrastructure. Headlines link to their original publishers.
This feed is for awareness, not prediction. Breaking reports can change as facts are confirmed. We distinguish reported events from warnings and forecasts; always read the linked source and follow official advice.
Choose a year to explore the setting, what was happening at the time, and why the Bulletin judged the risks to be changing. This is a selection of key milestones, not every adjustment.
On a phone, swipe the timeline sideways. Select any year to open its details.
Historical setting
The closest setting in the Clock’s history.
What happened?
The Bulletin cited increasingly aggressive competition between major powers and weakening international cooperation.
Why did it matter?
Global risks are interconnected; less cooperation makes nuclear, climate, biological and technological dangers harder to manage.
Read the Bulletin's statement ↗You do not need a bunker or expensive survival gear. Start with ordinary things that help during a power cut, water outage, severe weather or a disruption to shops and transport. Use what you already own, then build up gradually.
This is everyday emergency planning, not a prediction that disaster is imminent. Follow official instructions during an actual emergency.
Focus on the basics: drinking water, food, light, warmth, medication and a way to receive updates.
A useful starting target is 3 litres per person per day for drinking, so 9 litres per person for three days. You may need more for cooking, washing, babies, medical needs and pets.
Choose familiar food that keeps and needs little or no cooking.
A two week supply is a longer-term personal target, not a universal official requirement. Build it only as your space and budget allow.
At 3 litres per person per day for drinking, a 14 day supply is 42 litres per person for drinking alone. That is heavy and takes space; cooking and hygiene require more.
A practical, illustrated field guide to becoming more self-reliant when essential services are disrupted. Not just a list of things to buy: clear explanations, realistic plans, diagrams and skills you can build over time.
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The guide will focus on lawful, practical resilience and safety. Recommendations will be checked against reliable sources, with specialist and community experience clearly distinguished from verified guidance.
There is no single, reliable score that tells you how dangerous a country or city is for every kind of crisis. A place can face high flood exposure but have strong defences, or face conflict nearby while having strong emergency services. This atlas separates the main risk types so you can understand what the evidence does, and does not, say.
Hazard is what could happen, such as a flood, earthquake, heatwave or armed conflict. Exposure is the people and infrastructure in harm's way. Vulnerability is how badly they could be affected. Response capacity is how well people and services can prepare, respond and recover.
Risk depends on all of these. This page is an orientation guide, not a live warning, a precise city-level prediction, a nuclear target map or a ranking of places likely to be attacked.
What to examine: active fighting, displacement, border proximity, disruption to transport and essential services.
Conflict risk is highly time-sensitive and can change rapidly. National peace indices help compare broad conditions, but they are not a forecast of where violence will happen and do not describe every city equally. A country average may conceal areas facing very different circumstances.
Useful for: understanding broad security context. For travel or immediate safety decisions, check current official travel advice, local authorities and trusted humanitarian updates.
Illustrative examples: the Philippines faces multiple hazard types; flood risk also varies greatly within river basins and coastal regions.
Natural-hazard risk is not just how often a hazard occurs. It also depends on how many people and buildings are exposed, building quality, infrastructure, poverty, early warnings and the capacity to respond. The WorldRiskIndex combines exposure with societal vulnerability, but its country-level result should not be treated as a neighbourhood forecast.
Useful for: comparing broad national disaster-risk patterns, then checking local hazard maps and emergency plans for the specific address or area.
Illustrative examples: low-lying coastal areas can face flood exposure; hot and dry regions can face water stress. Risks vary within countries.
Climate risk depends on the physical hazard, who and what is exposed, and the ability to adapt. ND-GAIN compares country vulnerability and readiness across food, water, health, ecosystems, human habitat and infrastructure. It is a climate-adaptation index, not a general safety score and not a prediction for a specific city.
Useful for: understanding long-term climate vulnerability and adaptation capacity. For a property or neighbourhood, use local flood, heat and water-risk information where available.
What to examine: disease surveillance, access to healthcare, vaccination, water and sanitation, population movement and health-system capacity.
International travel hubs may be important for disease surveillance because many people move through them, but that does not mean an outbreak will begin in a particular city. Country-level epidemic and humanitarian risk assessments can highlight structural pressures, while public-health agencies provide current alerts and guidance.
Useful for: following verified public-health updates, keeping routine vaccinations current and planning continuity for essential medicines.
Applies to every country; local dependencies matter more than a single global ranking.
Storms, floods, technical failures, cyber incidents or conflict can disrupt services. The effects depend on backup systems, repair capacity, network design and how dependent households are on electricity, mobile networks, water pumps or digital payments. Public global indices do not reliably tell you which individual street will lose service.
Useful for: identify local outage-alert services, understand which services your household depends on, keep essential contacts offline and build a modest emergency supply.
Start with a country indicator, then narrow down to the region, city, neighbourhood and site.
INFORM Risk compares the risk of humanitarian crises and disasters that could overwhelm a country's response capacity, using hazards and exposure, vulnerability and lack of coping capacity. The WorldRiskIndex focuses on natural hazards and societal vulnerability. The Global Peace Index measures peacefulness, conflict and militarisation. ND-GAIN focuses on climate vulnerability and readiness. These tools answer different questions and should not be merged into one homemade “danger score”.
Best practice: compare like with like, check publication dates, read the method, and treat missing or low-resolution data as uncertainty rather than proof that a place is safe.
For people planning where they live or travel: check the relevant local hazard maps, current travel advice, emergency alerts and health guidance. This page explains broad patterns; it cannot replace local information.
Method note: the descriptions above summarise the purpose and limitations of the linked tools. The atlas does not currently calculate live scores. Always consult the linked source for its latest edition and date.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists created the Doomsday Clock in 1947. Its Science and Security Board sets the time after assessing risks such as nuclear weapons, climate change, biological threats and disruptive technologies. It is a warning symbol, not a forecasting tool.
View the complete official timeline ↗ · Read the official FAQ ↗