75 Examples of Problems

John Spacey, January 12, 2021 updated on January 11, 2022

A problem is a matter that is causing losses or will cause losses if not handled well. These can be social, environmental, financial, technological or personal. The following are common examples of problems.

Access to Healthcare	Access to Housing
Accidents & Injuries	Adapting to Change
Animal Welfare	Biases
Business Failure	Complacency
Conflict	Corruption
Cost Overrun / Excessive Cost	Crime
Crop Failures	Cyber Security
Disagreement & Discord	Disasters
Disengagement	Environmental Issues
Environmental Justice	Establishing / Sustaining Relationships
Ethical Lapses	Existential Risk
Extinctions / Conservation of Habitat	Failure of Imagination
Financial Liquidity	Financial Solvency
Food Insecurity / Hunger / Nutrition	Fraud
Health Issues	Human Rights
Incivility	Inefficiency
Inflation / Deflation	Infrastructure Lack / Failure
Infrastructure Maintenance	Lack of Direction / Meaning / Purpose
Lack of Discipline (mismatch between what you intend to do and actually do)	Lack of Responsibility / Accountability
Lack of Transparency / Candor / Honesty	Lack of Trust
Low Productivity	Mediocrity
Mental Health Issues	Miscommunication
Misinformation / Disinformation	Moral Failures
Operational Failures	Oppression
Physical Security	Political Polarization
Pollution	Poor Behavior
Poor Design	Poor Performance
Poor Quality	Poverty
Project Failure	Quality of Education
Quality of Life	Racism
Recessions / Depressions / Economic Collapse	Risk
Safety Issues	Sexism
Shortages / Surpluses	Social Instability
Social Issues	Social Justice
Social Rejection	Space Junk
Strategy Failure	Tax Burden
Unemployment	War / Risk of War
Water Insecurity / Drought / Water Quality

Discussion

Problems often depend on your perspective. For example, a business may see competition as a problem where this competition is good for society as a whole as it forces businesses to improve quality and reduce prices.

Problem vs Opportunity

In many cases, the difference between a problem and an opportunity is simply a matter of outlook. For example, a polluting industry could be viewed as a business opportunity whereby polluting less is likely to become a future competitive advantage. Some problems are completely negative such that putting a positive spin on everything can be a mistake.

75 Examples of Problems

Discussion

Problem vs Opportunity

Problem Solving

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