In June 2025, the New York (United States of America) based United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) released the 10th edition of the Sustainable Development Report (SDR) titled “Financing Sustainable Development to 2030 and Mid Century”. For the first time, India entered the top 100 on the 2025 Sustainable Development Goals Index(SDGi) , ranking 99th out of 193 countries with a score of 66.95, improving from 109th place in 2024.
- Finland has secured the first place with a score of 87.02, followed by Sweden with 85.74 and Denmark with 85.26.
- China also showed strong performance, ranking 49th with a score of 74.39, thus entering the top 50.
About Sustainable Development Report (SDR) :
i.The 2025 SDR report features the updated SDG Index and Dashboards, which assess and rank all UN Member States on their performance across the 17 SDG.
ii.It also introduced SDG Index (SDGi), focused on 17 headline indicators to measure overall SDG progress since 2015.
iii.The score indicates a country’s advancement toward achieving the 17 SDGs, assessed on a scale from 0 to 100, with 100 representing complete achievement of all goals and 0 indicating no measurable progress.
iv.The report outlines urgent proposals for reforming the Global Financial Architecture (GFA), key recommendations that should be considered during the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (Ff4D), to be held in Sevilla, Spain, from June 30 to July 3, 2025.
Highlights of SDR 2025 :
i.A decade after the adoption of the SDGs, progress is alarmingly behind schedule, with fewer than 20% of targets expected to be met by 2030.
- Only 17% of the targets are on track to be achieved worldwide.
- Conflicts, structural vulnerabilities, and limited fiscal space hinder the SDG progress in many parts of the world.
ii.So far, 190 out of the 193 United Nations (UN) Member States have taken part in the Voluntary National Review (VNR) process.
- Since 2015, most countries have submitted two or more VNRs, and 39 countries are set to present a VNR this year.
- Only three countries: Haiti, Myanmar, and the United States of America(USA)have not participated.
iii.Since 2015, five key targets have seen significant setbacks: obesity rates (SDG 2), press freedom (SDG 16), sustainable nitrogen management (SDG 2), the red list index for species conservation (SDG 15), and the corruption perception index (SDG 16). On the other hand, many countries have made strong progress in improving access to essential services and infrastructure, such as mobile broadband usage (SDG 9), electricity access (SDG 7), internet usage (SDG 9), under-5 child mortality (SDG 3), and neonatal mortality rates (SDG 3).
Top 5 Countries in SDGi 2025:
| Rank | Country | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Finland | 87.02 |
| 2 | Sweden | 85.74 |
| 3 | Denmark | 85.26 |
| 4 | Germany | 83.67 |
| 5 | France | 83.14 |
| 99 | India | 66.95 |
Key Findings:
i.Other top 10 countries in the SDGi 2025 include Austria with a score of 83.01, Norway scoring 82.72, Croatia at 82.39, Poland with 82.08, and Czechia (Czech Republic) at 81.94.
ii.As per the report,Bhutan is ranked 74th with a score of 70.5, Nepal (85) with a score of 68.6, Bangladesh (114) with 63.9 and Pakistan (140) with 57 points.
iii.19 of the top 20 countries are in Europe. Even these countries face significant challenges in achieving at least 2 goals, including those related to climate and biodiversity, largely due to unsustainable consumption
iv.Countries in East and South Asia have outperformed all other global regions in terms of SDG progress since 2015, largely due to rapid socioeconomic development.
- Countries in East and South Asia that have demonstrated fastest progress since 2015 (in points) include Nepal (+11.1), Cambodia (+10), the Philippines (+8.6), Bangladesh (+8.3) and Mongolia (+7.7)
v.Countries which have shown progress rapidly than their peers are Benin Sub-Saharan Africa) (+14.5), Nepal (East and South Asia), Peru (Latin America and the Caribbean) (+8.7), the United Arab Emirates (UAE) (+9.9)(Middle East and North Africa), Uzbekistan (+12.1)(Eastern Europe and Central Asia), Costa Rica (+7)(OECD), and Saudi Arabia (+8.1) than its peers in G20.
vi.Barbados stands out as the country, most committed to UN-based multilateralism (UN-Mi), followed by Jamaica and Trinidad at 2nd place and Tobago at 3rd place while USA ranks last in the 2025 Index of Countries’ support for UN-Mi.
- Among Group of Twenty (G20) countries, Brazil(25) is the most committed to UN-Mi, while Chile(7) leading among the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD).
About United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UNSDSN):
President – Jeffrey D. Sachs
Headquarters – New York, United States of America (USA)
Established – 2012
