The world is still far from achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, but the latest Sustainable Development Report 2026 shows that progress is not evenly distributed. The most striking result is that East and South Asia have outperformed every other region since the goals were adopted in 2015, reshaping assumptions about which countries are moving fastest on the global development agenda.
The report, prepared by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network and published by Dublin University Press, finds that none of the 17 SDGs is currently on track to be achieved globally by 2030. Only 16.5 percent of SDG targets are on track worldwide. The weakest areas include sustainable cities, life below water, life on land, and peace, justice and strong institutions. In practical terms, the world has made gains in areas such as internet access, mobile broadband, electricity access, adolescent fertility and HIV infections, but is losing ground or stagnating on hunger, sustainable agriculture, press freedom, corruption and justice systems.
The global ranking is still led by Europe. Finland ranks first in the 2026 SDG Index with a score of 87.4, followed by Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Germany. The top 10 is dominated by European countries, with Austria, France, the United Kingdom, Iceland and Czechia also among the strongest performers. Yet the report cautions against reading the European lead as a clean success story. Even the best-performing countries face major challenges on responsible consumption and production, climate action, life below water and life on land, partly because of high consumption patterns and negative spillover effects beyond their borders.
The real movement, however, is in Asia. China has risen 14 places in the SDG rankings since 2015, while India has climbed 18. Indonesia has also advanced 15 places, as has Ethiopia. China now ranks 49th with a score of 74.7, behind the United States but closing the gap. The report notes that in 2015 the United States ranked 40th, Russia 51st and China 63rd. A decade later, the United States has slipped to 45th, Russia remains 51st and China has climbed to 49th. If current trends continue, China is on track to surpass the United States in the coming years.
That shift is one of the report’s most politically significant findings. The SDGs were designed as a universal agenda, not only as a development checklist for poorer countries. The 2026 results suggest that long-term planning, infrastructure investment and rapid improvements in access to services can materially change a country’s position, even when major environmental and governance challenges remain.
At the other end of the index, countries affected by conflict, insecurity, political instability and limited fiscal space continue to rank lowest. Chad, the Central African Republic and South Sudan remain at the bottom of the SDG Index. The pattern underlines one of the report’s strongest messages: peace is not a separate goal from development, but the condition that makes development possible. War destroys infrastructure, diverts public money, displaces populations and weakens the institutions needed to deliver health, education, clean energy and food security.
The United States stands out in another way. In the report’s index of countries’ support for UN-based multilateralism, Barbados ranks first, while the United States ranks last and is described as a statistical outlier. The report says Washington voted with the international majority in only 5 percent of recorded UN General Assembly votes in 2025 and identifies the United States and Argentina as the only two countries that systematically opposed resolutions referring to the sustainable development paradigm.
Despite this, the report argues that global commitment to the SDGs remains stronger than many might assume. In 2025, UN General Assembly resolutions referencing the SDGs continued to receive broad support, often from more than 170 of the 193 UN member states. A total of 190 countries have taken part in the Voluntary National Review process, while more regional and local authorities are using Voluntary Local Reviews to report their own progress.
Greece ranks 32nd out of 169 countries in the 2026 SDG Index, with a score of 78.6, slightly above the OECD average of 78.2. Its score has improved by 2.8 percentage points since 2015, and the report records two Voluntary National Reviews. Greece performs relatively well compared with many countries, but its dashboard points to a familiar mix of strengths and unresolved pressures. Poverty indicators are relatively strong, and several health and infrastructure indicators show progress. However, the country continues to face challenges linked to obesity, sustainable agriculture, air pollution, road deaths, renewable energy share and broader environmental goals. Its international spillover score, 68.7, also reflects the wider problem facing many high-income economies: domestic performance can look better than the global footprint created through consumption, trade and environmental impacts.
The report’s broader conclusion is that the world does not need to abandon the SDGs after 2030. It needs to move from declarations to delivery. Its authors call for stronger financing, better global governance, long-term investment plans, regional and local implementation, and new rules for emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and biotechnology.
The goals, in other words, have not failed because the world stopped believing in them. They are failing because belief has not yet been matched by the scale of planning, finance and cooperation required to make them real.
