The increasing gap between rich and poor is perceived to be the biggest risk to global security, according to the World Economic Forum.
Its annual report warned the worsening levels of income disparity could lead to greater social unrest in the coming decade leading to the dissolution of the fabric of society.
In many places of the world, this could mean popular uprisings, such as the Arab Spring, especially if young people feel they do not have a future.
The report warned about a "lost generation" of young people coming of age in the 2010s who face either unemployment or underemployment.
"The younger generation in the mature markets struggle with ever fewer job opportunities and the need to support an ageing population", said David Cole, group chief risk officer at Swiss Re and contributor to the report.
"While in the emerging markets there are more jobs to be had, the workforce does not yet possess the broad based skill-sets necessary to satisfy demand," he added.
As a result, he said it was important to think in the long term, and that countries should not simply support jobs at home but that they also facilitated migration and invested in skills.
Other risks to global security were named in the report, including the possibility of cyber attacks.
Companies were encouraged to do more to protect themselves against a potential cyber attack as well as working to regain trust amongst the public which is reeling from data misuse, hacking and privacy intrusion.
The risk of another fiscal crisis was seen as the most potentially damaging, but the chances of it a repeat were perceived to have lessened.
The report was based on a survey of 700 experts from industry, government and civil society. It comes ahead of the World Economic Forum's annual conference in Davos next week, where many of the themes will be discussed.
