Sustainable Development Goals Report

The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025 presents how far we have come towards reaching the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With just four years until the SDGs target date, the gap between ambition and achievement has never been more stark – or more consequential. This report candidly assesses our progress and the ground we have left to cover. The core promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to leave no one behind remains within reach but only if we act decisively and immediately.

The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2024 presents how far we have come towards reaching the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The report warns that with just six years remaining to the 2030 deadline, and nearly a year from reaffirmed commitments at the SDG Summit, current progress falls far short of what is required to meet the targets outlined in the 2030 Agenda. The scarring effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, escalating conflicts, geopolitical tensions, and growing climate chaos are hitting SDG progress hard. The report reveals that only 17 per cent of the SDG targets are on track, with nearly half showing minimal or moderate progress, and over one-third stalling or regressing. The report documents increasing global inequalities, with an additional 23 million people pushed into extreme poverty and over 100 million more suffering from hunger in 2022 compared to 2019. For the first time this century, per-capita GDP growth in half of the world's most vulnerable nations is slower than that in advanced economies. Overall global health progress has decelerated alarmingly since 2015. Many countries have experienced declines in student math and reading skills. Wars are upending millions of lives. The number of forcibly displaced people has reached an unprecedented level, nearly 120 million by May 2024 and civilian casualties spiked by 72 per cent between 2022 and 2023. Environmental crises are threatening the foundations of planetary ecosystems. 2023 was the warmest year on record, with global temperatures nearing the critical 1.5°C threshold. Greenhouse gas emissions and atmospheric CO2 concentrations continue to reach new highs.

The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025 marks the tenth annual stocktaking of global progress toward the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. With the 2030 deadline only five years away, the report delivers a stark assessment: the Sustainable Development Goals have improved millions of lives, but the current pace of change is insufficient to fully achieve all the Goals by 2030. The report reveals real and substantial development gains during the past decade. Since 2015, the world has made notable strides in expanding access to education, improving maternal and child health, and bridging the digital divide. Effective prevention efforts have significantly reduced the burdens of infectious diseases such as HIV and malaria. Access to electricity has continued to grow, and renewable energy is now the fastest-rising source of power worldwide. Yet progress has been fragile and unequal. Millions still face extreme poverty, hunger, inadequate housing, and a lack of basic services. Women, people with disabilities, and marginalized communities continue to face systemic disadvantages. Escalating conflicts, climate chaos, rising inequalities, and soaring debt servicing costs are holding back further advancements. Despite these setbacks, national and local success stories showcased in the report – such as universal electricity access in 45 countries and the elimination of neglected tropical diseases in 54 countries – demonstrate that accelerated progress is not only possible but already happening. The report calls for action in six priority areas: food systems, energy access, digital transformation, education, jobs and social protection, and climate and biodiversity. It also urges increased international cooperation and sustained investment to turn the ambition of the 2030 Agenda into reality.

The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2018 provides an overview of progress towards achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and is prepared by the Statistics Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs in cooperation with the United Nations system and based on current available data and information. This third edition of the annual report contains an in-depth review of the six Goals related to the 2018 theme of the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF): Transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies as well as an overview with key findings for all 17 Goals of the SDGs.

This year marks the start of the Decade of Action to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. It is a critical period to advance a shared vision and accelerate responses to the world's gravest challenges – from eliminating poverty and hunger to reversing climate change. Yet, in only a brief period of time, the precipitous spread of the novel coronavirus turned a public health emergency into one of the worst international crises of our lifetimes, changing the world as we know it. Now, due to COVID-19, an unprecedented health, economic and social crisis is threatening lives and livelihoods, making the achievement of Goals even more challenging. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2020 presents an overview of progress towards the SDGs before the pandemic started, but it also looks at some of the devastating initial impacts of COVID-19 on specific Goals and targets. The report was prepared by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs in collaboration with over 200 experts from more than 40 international agencies using the latest available data and estimates.