The Sustainable Development Report (SDR) is the annual overview of countries’ performance on the 17 SDGs It is prepared jointly by the Bertelsmann Stiftung and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).

Since 2016, the Sustainable Development Report (SDR) has provided the most up-to-date data available to track and rank the performance of all UN member states on the SDGs. Eighty years after the creation of the UN system, the report also provides improved and updated measures to track countries’ efforts to support UN-based multilateralism.

The 2025 SDR emphasizes the following eight key messages:

1. Global commitment to the SDGs is strong: 190 out of 193 countries have presented national action plans for advancing sustainable development. A decade after the adoption of Agenda 2030 and the SDGs, 190 of the 193 UN member states have participated in the Voluntary National Review (VNR) process, presenting their SDG implementation plans and sustainable development priorities to the international community.

2. East and South Asia has outperformed all other regions in SDG progress since 2015. This year’s SDR introduces a streamlined SDG Index (SDGi), which uses 17 headline indicators to track overall SDG progress. On average, East and South Asia has shown the fastest progress on the SDGs since 2015, driven notably by rapid progress on the socioeconomic targets.

3. Other countries that have progressed more rapidly than their peers include the following: Benin (Sub-Saharan Africa), Nepal (East and South Asia), Peru (Latin America and the Caribbean), the United Arab Emirates (Middle East and North Africa), Uzbekistan (Eastern Europe and Central Asia), Costa Rica (OECD), and Saudi Arabia (G20).

4. European countries continue to top the SDG Index. Finland ranks first this year and 19 of the top 20 countries are in Europe. Yet even these countries face significant challenges in achieving at least two goals, including those related to climate and biodiversity. In this year’s SDG Index, China (Rank 49) and India (Rank 99) have entered the top 50 and top 100 performers respectively.

5. On average globally, the SDGs are far off-track. At the global level, none of the 17 goals are currently on course to be achieved by 2030. Conflicts, structural vulnerabilities, and limited fiscal space impede SDG progress in many parts of the world. But while only 17% of the targets are on track to be achieved worldwide, most UN member states have made strong progress on targets related to access to basic services and infrastructure, including mobile broadband use (SDG 9), access to electricity (SDG 7), internet use (SDG 9), under-5 mortality rate (SDG 3), and neonatal mortality (SDG 3).

SDG Index

The Report also includes the SDG Index and Dashboards for tracking the progress on Global Goals 2030. The SDG Index for the countries calculates the progress as an overall score out of 100. The 2025 Report ranked 193 countries. The top 10 countries and the ranks of India and its neighbours are given below:

Top 10 countries (Ranks 1-10): Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France, Austria, Norway, Croatia, Poland, and Czechia.

The Ranks of India and its Neighbours: China (49), Maldives (53), Bhutan (74), Nepal (85), Sri Lanka (93), India (99), Bangladesh (114), Myanmar (116), and Pakistan (140).

Possible Prelims Question on this Report

Which of the following statements are true about the 2025 Sustainable Development Report?

1.   Out of the 193 countries assessed, India ranks just below 100.

2.   China’s performance is poorer than that of India.

3.   The Scandinavian countries show the highest scores.

4.   Less than 20% of the targets are on track to be achieved worldwide.

Select the right answer using the codes given below:

A.   1, 2, and 3 only.

B.   All the statements

C.   1, 3, and 4 only

D.  3 and 4 only.

Correct Response: C