This report details the significant challenges the world is facing in making substantial strides towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) based on the latest data and estimates. It features areas with setbacks while also showcasing where tangible progress has been made, for instance, in reducing global child mortality, preventing HIV infection, and access to energy and mobile broadband. The report also highlights where action must accelerate, particularly in critical areas undermining SDG progress - climate change, peace and security, inequalities among and between countries, among others.

According to the report, with just six years remaining, current progress falls far short of what is required to meet the SDGs. Without massive investment and scaled up action, the achievement of the SDGs — the blueprint for a more resilient and prosperous world and the roadmap out of current global crises — will remain elusive. The lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, escalating conflicts, geopolitical tensions and growing climate chaos have severely hindered progress. The report details the urgent priorities and areas needed for stronger and more effective action to ensure the 2030 promise to end poverty, protect the planet and leave no one behind.

Key findings

• For the first time this century, per-capita GDP growth in half of the world’s most vulnerable nations is slower than that of advanced economies.
• Nearly 60 per cent of countries faced moderately to abnormally high food prices in 2022.
• Progress on education remains of grave concern, with only 58 per cent of students worldwide achieving minimum proficiency in reading by the end of primary school.
• Global capacity to generate electricity from renewable energy has begun expanding at an unprecedented rate, growing at 8.1 per cent annually for the past five years.
• Record high ocean temperatures have triggered a fourth global coral bleaching event.
• Mobile broadband (3G or higher) is accessible to 95 per cent of the world's population, up from 78 per cent in 2015.