Greece ranks 28th out of 41 European countries in the Europe Sustainable Development Report 2025, highlighting persistent structural challenges nearly a decade after the adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While Europe as a whole continues to dominate the top of global SDG rankings, the report shows that progress has slowed markedly since 2020- and that Southern Europe, including Greece, faces a long road to convergence with the continent’s frontrunners.

Greece’s SDG Index Score: Below the EU Average

According to the report’s 2025 SDG Index, Greece scores 66.5 out of 100, well below the EU average of 72.8. Northern European countries continue to lead, with Finland, Denmark, and Sweden topping the rankings, while Greece clusters with countries facing deeper socio-economic and institutional pressures.

The findings reflect a broader regional pattern. Southern Europe as a whole averages 71.2, and the report estimates that, at the current pace of progress, it would take 19 years for Southern Europe to catch up with Northern Europe’s level of sustainable development performance.

“Leave No One Behind”: A Core Weakness for Greece

One of the report’s most concerning findings for Greece relates to the Leave-No-One-Behind (LNOB) Index, which measures inequalities within countries. Greece ranks 30th, with a score of 62.5, placing it among the weakest performers in the EU on inequality-related indicators.

The LNOB Index examines poverty and material deprivation, income inequality, gender inequality, and access to quality services. While the EU remains one of the most equal regions globally, the report shows that progress on LNOB indicators has stagnated or reversed since 2020, particularly in poverty and access to services. Greece’s low ranking reflects these broader trends, which have been exacerbated by rising living costs and housing pressures across Southern Europe.

Notably, while gender equality has improved across Europe, no EU country, including Greece, has fully achieved SDG 5, underlining the unfinished nature of this agenda.

Education, Inequality, and Social Outcomes

Across Europe, the report identifies worsening trends in education inequality, including declining PISA performance and an increasing link between students’ socio-economic background and learning outcomes. These indicators are among those showing the strongest regression since 2015.

Although the report does not single out Greece in these indicators, its overall SDG and LNOB rankings suggest that Greece is not insulated from these dynamics—especially given its comparatively low performance on reduced inequalities, education-related outcomes, and access to services.

Environmental and Consumption Pressures Persist

Like other EU countries, Greece operates within a system that generates negative international spillovers, particularly through consumption patterns and supply chains. The report emphasizes that EU countries, despite strong domestic SDG performance, contribute significantly to environmental and social impacts abroad, accounting for up to 20–30% of their total footprint when spillover effects are included.

This finding is particularly relevant for countries such as Greece, where sustainable development is closely tied to tourism, food systems, and resource use. The report highlights ongoing challenges related to sustainable food and land systems, biodiversity, and responsible consumption, areas where progress across Europe has been uneven since 2015.

Governance, Trust, and Press Freedom

The report also flags worrying trends under SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions). Across Europe, indicators related to governance and institutional quality have shown slow progress or outright decline, including deterioration in press freedom since 2020.

While Greece is not explicitly singled out, the broader European decline in institutional indicators places additional pressure on countries already facing lower SDG scores. Strong institutions and freedom of expression are identified as foundational for sustainable development, particularly in times of geopolitical instability and economic uncertainty.

Slow Convergence, High Stakes

One of the report’s central messages is that convergence within Europe is happening- but far too slowly. Countries that started with lower SDG scores in 2015, including Greece, have improved faster than top performers in relative terms. Yet the gap remains wide, and linear projections suggest decades, not years, before meaningful convergence is achieved.

For Greece, this underscores a critical policy challenge: accelerating progress not only on economic growth, but on social cohesion, inequality reduction, education, and institutional strength, the very areas where European progress has stalled since the pandemic.

A Decisive Decade Ahead

With the EU’s new leadership entering its final term before the 2030 SDG deadline, the report frames the current period as decisive. It calls for scaled-up investment, stronger social protections, and deeper integration of the SDGs into national and EU-level policymaking.

For Greece, the data paint a clear picture: while the country remains firmly within Europe’s sustainable development framework, it risks falling further behind unless structural inequalities and social vulnerabilities are addressed with urgency. The next five years will be pivotal, not only for Greece’s SDG rankings, but for the lived realities those rankings reflect.