Global development goals: progress and setbacks

There are 17 Sustainable Development Goals comprising 169 specific targets. Of these, 139 targets were able to 
assessed for the SDG Report 2025.

18 % of the assessed targets have been met or are on track, 48 % show moderate or marginal progress, 17 % are stagnating and 18 % show regression. (Percentages do not add up to 100 % due to rounding.)

Goals with a relatively large number of specific targets on track include SDG7 “Affordable and clean energy” and SDG11 “Sustainable cities and communities”. In contrast, SDG2 “Zero hunger”, SDG14 “Life below water” and SDG8 “Decent work and economic growth” have seen significant setbacks. We report on developments for a few selected indicators below.

SDG1 
“No poverty”: One in 10 people is living in extreme poverty, measured against the international poverty line of $ 3.00 per day. In the early 1990s, it was four in 10. The goal of eradicating extreme poverty by 2030 will most likely not be achieved.

SDG2 
“Zero hunger”: 8.2 % of the world’s population was undernourished in 2024, down from 8.5 % in 2023. During the Covid-19 pandemic, this figure had risen from 7.5 % to 8.8 %.

SDG3 
“Good health and well-being”: The global maternal mortality ratio fell from 228 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2015 to 197 in 2023. The target of no more than 70 deaths per 100,000 births by 2030 remains a long way off.

SDG4 
“Quality education”: Youth literacy increased from 91 % in 2014 to 93 % in 2024. The rise is mainly due to improvements in sub-Saharan Africa and Central and South Asia.

SDG5 
“Gender equality”: 27.2 % of the seats in national parliaments were held by women at the beginning of 2025 – up 4.9 percentage points from 2015. The progress is slowing down, however.

SDG12 
„Responsible consumption and production”: Global domestic material consumption increased by 23.3 % between 2015 and 2022.

SDG15 
“Life on land”: An average of 10 million hectares of forest were cleared each year between 2015 and 2020 – 2 million less than in the period from 2010 to 2015. If this trend continues, it will take another 25 years to achieve the goal of halting deforestation.

SDG16 
“Peace, justice and strong institutions”: In 2024, at least one person died every 12 minutes due to armed conflict. Compared to the previous two-year period, the number of children killed in armed conflict rose by 337 % in 2023/24, while the number of women killed rose by 258 % – largely due to the war in Gaza.

Link
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025

Isah Shafiq is a student of political science at Goethe University Frankfurt and a student assistant at D+C.
euz.editor@dandc.eu