The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025

Overview

The United Nations (UN) has published the Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025, the only official UN report that monitors global progress on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Using the latest available data and estimates, the report provides a comprehensive assessment of progress towards the 2030 Agenda. It aims to serve as a foundational resource, offering up-to-date data and evidence to inform recommendations and solutions for accelerating progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025

The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025 marks the tenth annual stocktaking of global progress toward the 2030 Agenda. With the 2030 deadline just five years away, the report delivers a stark assessment: while the SDGs have improved millions of lives, the current pace of change is insufficient to fully achieve all the Goals by 2030. This annual SDG Report is prepared by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), in collaboration with the entire UN Statistical System—comprising more than 50 international and regional agencies—drawing on data from over 200 countries and territories.

The report highlights real and substantial development gains over the past decade. Since 2015, the world has made notable progress in expanding access to education, improving maternal and child health, and narrowing the digital divide. Effective prevention efforts have significantly reduced the burden of infectious diseases such as HIV and malaria. Access to electricity continues to expand, and renewable energy is now the fastest-growing source of power worldwide.

Key highlights

• The 2025 progress assessment reveals that the world remains far off track from achieving the 2030 Agenda.
• Of the 169 SDG targets, 139 could be assessed using global trend data from the 2015 baseline to the most recent year, supplemented by custodian agency analyses. Among these, only 35 per cent show adequate progress – 18 percent are on track and 17 per cent are making moderate progress.
• Forty-eight (48) percent of targets show insufficient progress, including 31 per cent with only marginal gains and 17 per cent with no progress at all.
• Most concerning, 18 per cent of targets have regressed below 2015 baseline levels.
• A country-led and system-strengthening approach is key for sustainable investment in data. A robust and sustainable financing system for data and statistics must move away from funder-driven, project-based models towards country-led, system-strengthening approaches. This transition requires Governments to increase domestic investment in their data and statistical systems.

The 2025 #SDG3 Factsheet

• Global health progress is slowing after decades of gains.
• Deep inequalities and under-resourced systems persist.
• Despite a growing health workforce and expanded services, major inequalities persist.
• Low-income and fragile settings face the highest risks due to underfunded systems, service gaps, and workforce shortages.
• Infectious and non-communicable diseases remain major threats. Global maternal deaths fall slightly, but progress stalls in high-burden countries.
• Under-5 mortality rate reveals significant gaps among the regions.
• The global fight against infectious diseases shows critical gains, though global targets remain out of reach. Non-communicable diseases cause more than half the deaths for people under age 70.
• Global tobacco and alcohol use is declining, but still cause immense health, economic, and environmental burdens.
• Vaccine delivery systems have not fully rebounded post-pandemic, making global targets unlikely.
• Official development assistance for health sees sharp decline from pandemic peak, but remains above pre-pandemic levels.
• Despite a growing health workforce, a global shortage persists and is growing as the population expands and ages.
• Between 2000 and 2019, healthy life expectancy increased by over five years.
• The global maternal mortality ratio dropped from 228 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2015 to 197 in 2023. However, 260,000 women still die during pregnancy and childbirth every year.
• Global under-5 mortality fell to 37 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2023, a 16% reduction from 44 in 2015. As of 2023, 133 countries had already met the SDG target for under-5 mortality, and 7 more are expected to do so by 2030.
• AIDS-related deaths have halved since 2010. 54 countries have eliminated at least one neglected tropical disease. Meanwhile, malaria cases are rising and tuberculosis returned to being probably the world’s leading cause of death from a single infectious agent in 2023.
• Non-communicable diseases killed 18 million people under age 70 in 2021. Risk factors such as tobacco use, air pollution, and poor diet remain insufficiently addressed.
• The global health workforce was estimated at over 70 million in 2023. A global shortage of 14.7 million health workers persisted in that year, down from 15.4 million in 2020. The shortfall is projected to decline gradually to 11.1 million by 2030.
• To meet global health targets by 2030, a substantial intensification of efforts is needed to address deep-seated inequalities, strengthen primary care, build resilient and inclusive health systems, and ensure universal access to quality care.