The report includes the SDG Index and Dashboards, which rank all UN Member States on their performance across the 17 Goals. This year’s report features a new Index, which focuses on 17 headline indicators to track overall SDG progress over time.
Ahead of the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (Ff4D) in Seville, Spain (30 June – 3 July, 2025), the report outlines urgent reforms to the Global Financial Architecture (GFA). These reforms should be adopted during the conference to unlock the financing needed to achieve the goals. On the heels of the 80th anniversary of the creation of the UN System, the report also provides improved measures. It introduces a new web platform to track countries’ support for and engagement with the UN system. This is done via its Index of countries’ support for UN-based multilateralism (UN-Mi).
This year, Finland ranks #1 in global SDG progress and Slovenia ranks #12 on global SDG progress (down one spot from last year’s ranking at #11).
Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, President of the SDSN and a lead author of the report, emphasises that: “Amid rising geopolitical tensions, widening global inequalities, and the escalating climate crisis, SDR underscores that the world overwhelmingly recognises the Sustainable Development Goals as the vital pathway to peace, equity, and well-being.”
This year’s SDR highlights five key findings:
- Widespread SDG Commitment: 190 out of 193 UN Member States have engaged in Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs), with increasing local-level reporting through Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs).
- Regional SDG Progress Leaders: Nordic countries top the SDG Index, while East and South Asia show the fastest progress since 2015.
- Global SDG Progress Stalled: Only 17% of targets may be achieved by 2030, with major setbacks in areas like press freedom and health indicators.
- UN Multilateralism Divide: Barbados leads in UN commitment; the U.S. ranks last due to disengagement from key international agreements and the SDG agenda.
- Urgent Reform of Global Financing: The current financial system fails to support sustainable development in lower-income countries, despite their high potential for returns and impact.
“Many countries are making significant progress, but much more can be accomplished through stepped-up investments in education, green technologies, and digital solutions,” added Jeffrey D. Sachs.
Since 2016, the SDR has provided the most up-to-date data to track and rank the performance of all UN Member States on the SDGs. This year, more than 200,000 individual data points were used to produce 200+ country and regional SDG profiles. The report was written by a group of independent experts at the SDG Transformation Center, an initiative of the SDSN.
