Data extracted in April 2026.
Planned article update: June 2027.
Highlights
This article is a part of a set of statistical articles, which are based on the Eurostat publication ’Sustainable development in the European Union — Monitoring report on progress towards the SDGs in an EU context — 2026 edition’. This report is the tenth edition of Eurostat’s series of monitoring reports on sustainable development, which provide a quantitative assessment of progress of the EU towards the SDGs in an EU context.
In an era of increasing turmoil and uncertainty, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the United Nations (UN) in September 2015, remains the world’s roadmap for achieving sustainable development. The European Union (EU) has fully committed itself to delivering on the 2030 Agenda, and the SDGs form an intrinsic part of the European Commission’s work programme and its Political Guidelines for the period 2024 to 2029.
Monitoring and communicating about the progress made towards the 17 SDGs is essential in realising the 2030 Agenda’s vision, both globally and in the EU. Since 2017, Eurostat monitors the EU’s progress based on the EU SDG indicator set and presents an assessment of more recent as well as longer-term developments in annual reports. This is the tenth edition in the series, covering the most recent 5- or 6-year period of available data, avoiding 2020 as a base year due to COVID-related outliers.
How has the EU progressed towards the SDGs?
The overview arrow below visually summarises the EU progress towards each of the 17 goals. Over the short-term period, the EU has made significant progress towards five SDGs: ‘Decent work and economic growth’ (SDG 8), ‘Responsible consumption and production’ (SDG 12), ‘Reduced inequalities’ (SDG 10), ‘Gender equality’ (SDG 5) and ‘Quality education’ (SDG 4). The EU has also progressed towards nine other SDGs, but at a moderate pace. Among these goals, the EU has performed best for ‘Industry, innovation and infrastructure’ (SDG 9) and ‘Zero hunger’ (SDG 2). By contrast, no progress was observed for ‘Partnerships for the goals’ (SDG 17). Moreover, the EU has moved away from the sustainable development objectives of ’Life on land’ (SDG 15) and ’Clean water and sanitation’ (SDG 6) due to biodiversity loss, water scarcity and deteriorating water quality. In summary, the EU has made progress towards most SDGs, at varying paces and despite remaining challenges, while it has stagnated on SDG 17 and fallen back on SDG 6 and SDG 15.
Summary at goal level
This section provides a summary of the short-term development of each goal, mainly referring to indicator developments from 2019 to 2024 or 2025. Arrow symbols show the individual indicator assessments on which the overall goal-level assessment is based. More details are found in the following chapters of this report. The method for assessing indicator progress and aggregation at goal-level is explained in Annex II in the printed publication.
Overall, the EU has made moderate progress towards SDG 1 ‘No poverty’. Progress towards reducing poverty in its different dimensions has largely stalled since 2019, with no significant improvements regarding monetary poverty and (quasi-)jobless households. The EU is currently not on track to meet its multidimensional target of lifting at least 15 million people out of poverty or social exclusion by 2030. Developments have been favourable in other aspects, including reductions in the in-work poverty rate and in the shares of people overburdened by housing costs or facing severe housing deprivation. Still, housing affordability challenges persist particularly for people living in low-income households and cities.
Monitoring SDG 2 ‘Zero hunger’ in the EU context focuses mainly on the sustainability of agricultural production and its environmental impacts. The economic viability and sustainability of agricultural production have developed favourably. Labour productivity of the EU’s agricultural sector has improved and public investments in agricultural R&D have increased. The use and risk of chemical pesticides fell strongly to below the target level envisaged for 2030. Ammonia emissions from agriculture and nitrate concentrations in EU groundwater bodies have also fallen. However, agricultural practices in the EU still have negative effects on nature, which are visible in the continued and dramatic decline of common farmland birds. Organic farming has grown steadily, but the conversion of farmland to organic production needs to speed up to meet the EU target of 25% by 2030.
SDG 3 ‘Good health and well-being’ shows a mix of positive, negative and neutral developments. Indicators based on self-perceived health show that people’s perceived health levels have climbed back to pre-pandemic levels. This perception is supported by developments in avoidable mortality, which has fallen to a new low after the recent pandemic-related peak. The share of smokers continued its downward trend in 2023, but the share of obese people stabilized at a high level. Trends in health care have been unfavourable. The share of people reporting unmet needs for medical care has risen strongly, mainly because of increasingly long waiting lists. Additionally, the consumption of antibiotics in the community and hospital sectors has increased in recent years, meaning the EU is not on track to meet its 2030 target.
Significant progress has been made for SDG 4 ‘Quality education’. The EU is well on track to meet its 2030 targets for participation in early childhood education, early leavers from education and training and tertiary educational attainment. Adult learning has also increased, showing particularly strong growth since 2020. However, trends have been unfavourable for educational outcomes. The proportion of low achieving pupils in reading, mathematics and science as measured in the OECD’s PISA study increased strongly from 2018 to 2022, moving the EU further away from its target of reducing these shares to 15% by 2030. The share of adults with at least basic digital skills has grown in recent years, but stronger growth will be needed to meet the target of 80% by 2030.
SDG 5 ‘Gender equality’ is characterised by mostly favourable developments in the EU. While the gender gap for early school leaving has narrowed, men continue to lag behind women in tertiary educational attainment. Women’s hourly earnings are catching up with those of men, and the gap between men and women who are outside the labour force due to caring responsibilities has narrowed. The gender employment gap has decreased, but much stronger progress will be necessary for the EU to meet its target of halving the gap by 2030. Finally, more women have obtained leadership positions, both as members of national parliaments and in director positions of the largest publicly listed companies.
The EU is moving away from the objectives of SDG 6 ‘Clean water and sanitation’. Improvements in sanitation took place, but the picture is mixed for water quality and unfavourable when it comes to water scarcity. While biochemical oxygen demand in rivers and nitrate concentrations in EU groundwater bodies have decreased, phosphate concentrations in EU rivers have risen strongly, and the share of inland bathing waters with excellent quality has declined. A new indicator measuring pesticides in rivers shows that the share of waterbodies exceeding pesticide thresholds has risen strongly in recent years. Furthermore, pressure on the EU’s freshwater resources is growing, which is exacerbated by an increase in the EU area impacted by drought.
Most of the indicators used to monitor SDG 7 ‘Affordable and clean energy’ have improved, but at a too slow pace in certain areas to ensure the EU meets its 2030 targets. The EU has achieved reductions in both its primary and final energy consumption, but further progress is needed to meet the respective 2030 targets. At the same time, energy productivity has increased strongly. The share of renewable energy has increased, but stronger growth is needed to meet the 2030 target. The EU has become less dependent on imports for its energy. However, affordability of energy remains a concern to many households due to continued high energy prices.
The EU has made significant progress on SDG 8 ‘Decent work and economic growth’. GDP per capita has grown. The EU’s employment rate reached a new record high in 2025, and the EU is on track to meeting its 78% target by 2030. Likewise, the EU’s long-term unemployment rate and the share of young people neither in employment nor in education and training (NEET) have continued their decreasing trend. In the area of decent work, both the incidence of fatal work accidents and the share of ‘working poor’ have continued to decline. A movement away from the goal’s objectives has only been observed for the investment share of GDP, which decreased slightly.
Most of the indicators of SDG 9 ‘Industry, innovation and infrastructure’ have developed favourably in recent years. The air emissions intensity of the manufacturing sector has continued to decrease, and the gross value added (GVA) of the environmental goods and services sector has grown. The share of R&D personnel in the labour force has increased, and patent applications to the European Patent Office have grown slightly. By contrast, the EU’s R&D expenditure has increased at a slower pace than GDP since 2020, meaning the EU is not on track to meet its 2030 target of dedicating 3% of its GDP to R&D. Developments are mixed for sustainable infrastructure. On the positive side, the share of households enjoying high-speed internet connections has grown considerably. The use of public passenger transport modes (buses and trains) has increased back to pre-pandemic levels. However, the share of rail and waterways in inland freight transport has further decreased.
The EU has continued to make significant progress SDG 10 ‘Reduced inequalities’. Income inequalities within countries have decreased thanks to a continued narrowing of the income gap between richer and poorer population groups. Similarly, the depth of poverty, measured as the distance of incomes below the poverty threshold to the threshold itself, has decreased, and the poverty gap between rural and urban areas has disappeared at EU level. Data on economic disparities between EU countries show a continued convergence of Member States in terms of household income, while disparities in GDP per capita have widened slightly. The gap between non-EU citizens and EU home country nationals has narrowed for almost all the indicators monitored, suggesting improved integration of migrants.
Moderate progress has been made on SDG 11 ‘Sustainable cities and communities’. While the quality of life in cities and communities has improved, sustainable mobility patterns and impacts on the environment show unfavourable trends. The severe housing deprivation rate has decreased considerably. Likewise, the number of premature deaths due to exposure to fine particulate matter has fallen significantly. The perceived exposure to noise, however, has stagnated. Moreover, road traffic deaths are not decreasing fast enough to meet the EU’s 2030 target. Soil sealing with impervious materials has increased continuously. The growth in the EU’s recycling rate of municipal waste has slowed in recent years, putting the EU off track to meeting its target by 2030. The connection rate of households to secondary wastewater treatment has continued to increase slowly.
The EU has made significant progress in almost all the indicators used for monitoring SDG 12 ‘Responsible consumption and production’. Both the EU’s material footprint and the consumption footprint have fallen in recent years, suggesting lower pressure on the global extraction of materials due to the consumption of goods and services in the EU. Moreover, the consumption of hazardous chemicals has decreased considerably. The environmental goods and services sector has continued to outperform other economic sectors in its growth. Total waste generation has risen since its COVID-19 related low, but it still remained below 2018 levels. However, the increase in the EU’s circular material use rate remains too slow for the EU to achieve its 2030 Clean Industrial Deal target.
The EU is making moderate progress on SDG 13 ‘Climate action’. The EU’s greenhouse gas emissions have further decreased in 2024, but stronger progress is still needed to meet the 55% reduction target by 2030. The carbon removals achieved through land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF), which partly offset the overall net greenhouse gas emissions, have further declined, and the EU remains far from its target. In support of the EU’s climate-neutrality objective, the share of renewables in the EU’s energy consumption has grown, and the average CO2 emissions efficiency of new EU car fleets has improved. Climate change impacts have risen sharply in recent years, as shown by the increased monetary losses from climate-related disasters. On a positive note, more green bonds have been issued to finance the transition towards climate-neutrality, and climate-related expenditure for developing countries has increased strongly.
The EU has made progress towards SDG 14 ‘Life below water’ in the area of sustainable fisheries, but ocean health is deteriorating. Due to the absorption of CO2 into the world’s oceans, the mean surface seawater acidity continues to increase. Likewise, a growing share of EU marine waters is affected by eutrophication and the share of coastal bathing sites with excellent water quality has stagnated. The extent of marine protected areas has grown, but the designation of new areas needs to speed up to meet the 2030 target of protecting 30% of marine waters. Developments have been more favourable regarding sustainable fisheries, showing increases of fish stock biomass and a significant reduction of fishing pressure in EU marine waters.
The EU continues to move away from the objectives of SDG 15 ‘Life on land’. This is mainly due to continued land degradation and a decline in biodiversity. Progress is only visible regarding the extension of forest area, a reduction of biological oxygen demand in EU rivers and a slight decrease in the area at risk of severe soil erosion by water. By contrast, phosphate pollution of EU rivers continues to be on the rise. The sealing of soil with impervious materials and the area impacted by drought have grown steadily in the EU. Moreover, the EU continues to face dramatic long-term declines in common bird and grassland butterfly populations. The designation of new terrestrial protected areas has stagnated, meaning that, at the current pace, the EU will not achieve the target of protecting at least 30% of its land area by 2030.
The significant progress of some indicators in SDG 16 ‘Peace, justice and strong institutions’ is partially outweighed by the strong increase in the number of victims of human trafficking in the EU. The EU’s rating in the Corruption Perceptions Index has also worsened, even though perceived corruption levels in EU countries are still lower than in most other parts of the world. Significantly less crime, violence and vandalism has been perceived in EU neighbourhoods. At the same time, the number of deaths due to homicide or assault has decreased. Government expenditure on law courts has increased significantly, but the perceived independence of justice systems in Member States has stagnated.
SDG 17 ‘Partnerships for the goals’ shows no overall progress, due to both favourable and unfavourable developments. EU financing to developing countries has fallen in recent years. EU trade with the world’s least developed countries has grown, although imports from these countries still account for only about 2% of total extra-EU imports. The EU’s overall debt-to-GDP ratio has increased in recent years and has remained above pre-pandemic levels in 2025. Moreover, the already low share of environmental taxes in total tax revenues declined even further and reached yet another low in 2024. On a positive note, the share of EU households enjoying high-speed internet connection has grown considerably.
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Database
Thematic section
Methodology
More detailed information on EU SDG indicators for monitoring of progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as indicator relevance, definitions, methodological notes, background and potential linkages can be found in the introduction as well as in Annex II of the publication ’Sustainable development in the European Union — Monitoring report on progress towards the SDGs in an EU context — 2026 edition’.