Key findings
How has the EU progressed towards the SDGs?
The EU has made progress towards most goals over the 5 years period assessed. Overall, progress has been stronger towards many socio-economic goals. Additional efforts are necessary to ensure protection and sustainable use of natural resources.
The figure below shows a statistical summary of EU progress towards the 17 SDGs over this period.
Despite the deep economic regression caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the EU has made significant progress in ensuring decent work and economic growth (SDG 8) and reducing poverty (SDG 1), as well as in improving gender equality (SDG 5).
Good progress has been achieved in reducing inequalities (SDG 10), ensuring quality education (SDG 4), and fostering peace and personal security within the EU’s territory and improving access to justice and trust in institutions (SDG 16). The EU has also seen good progress towards the goals on health and well-being (SDG 3), despite the COVID-19 pandemic, and on innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9).
Progress towards the remaining goals was less significant. More progress is expected for 3 goals: climate action (SDG 13), life on land (SDG 15) and global partnerships (SDG 17). Regarding climate action (SDG 13), the EU has set very ambitious and unparalleled climate targets for 2030 and, as compared to past trends, they will require more efforts. Concerning life on land (SDG 15), even though terrestrial protected areas have increased since 2013, additional efforts are needed to reverse the degradation of ecosystems.The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are already visible for most of the SDGs indicators, while more recent developments - such as those caused by Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine - are only partly reflected.
To get a quick overview of the progress of each SDG and its sub-indicators, please click on the images in the wheel below.
How have the EU countries progressed towards the SDGs?
Eurostat compiles a statistical overview of the status, meaning the situation based on the most recent data as well as the progress of the EU members towards the 17 SDGs, based on the EU SDG indicator set.
The visualisation tool SDG country overview shows a graphical interactive presentation. The graphs are also shown in the EU SDG monitoring report and in the European Semester country reports.
Each of the data tables below contains the data for the country as well as for the EU, which were used for the interactive tool and the graphs. The short-term trend at EU-level is assessed over a 5-year period. As a result, both the value at the beginning of the period and the latest available value is presented.
Data tables for country charts
Data for the countries are provided as Excel files.
Note for users: for information on the re-use of the SDG logo and icons, please see the UN guidelines.