Only 17% of Government SDG Promises Are On Track in 2025

Only 17% of Government SDG Promises Are On Track in 2025

In 2015, every government on earth signed the same document. All 193 UN member states adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — a set of 17 goals and 169 specific targets covering poverty, hunger, healthcare, education, clean water, employment, and governance. Each target had a deadline. Each was a measurable commitment. Each was a promise.

Ten years later, the results are in.

According to the United Nations SDG Report 2025, published by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs in July 2025, only 35 percent of targets are on track or making moderate progress. Nearly half are progressing too slowly. And 18 percent have regressed — meaning conditions are measurably worse today than when governments signed the agreement.

The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, in its independent Sustainable Development Report 2025, puts the number even lower: only 16.7 percent of targets are genuinely on track to be achieved by the 2030 deadline.

Not a single one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals will be fully achieved by 2030. None.

"We are facing a development emergency." — António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, foreword to the SDG Report 2025

The five worst-performing goals

The UN has identified five goals where more than half of all measurable targets have stalled or deteriorated.

Zero Hunger (SDG 2) — the worst performer

Four out of seven tracked targets are regressing. According to the FAO's State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2025 (SOFI 2025), an estimated 673 million people faced hunger in 2024. An additional 2.3 billion people — 28 percent of the global population — were moderately or severely food insecure.

Governments promised zero hunger by 2030. At current rates, 512 million people will still be hungry when the deadline arrives.

Quality Education (SDG 4)

Between 50 and 57 percent of targets are stalled or moving backward, according to the UN SDG Report 2025.

Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG 6)

According to the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme report published in August 2025, 2.1 billion people — one in four people on earth — still lack access to safely managed drinking water. This includes 106 million who drink directly from untreated surface water.

An additional 3.4 billion people lack safely managed sanitation, including 354 million who still practice open defecation.

Decent Work (SDG 8)

57.8 percent of the global workforce was informally employed as of 2024 — no social security coverage, no labor protections. This proportion has increased since 2015.

Reduced Inequalities (SDG 10)

Between-country inequality experienced its largest increase in three decades.

Governance is getting worse

The Sustainable Development Report 2025 identifies five indicators with the most significant global reversal since 2015. Two of them relate directly to governance: the Corruption Perceptions Index (Transparency International) and the Press Freedom Index (Reporters Without Borders).

Both are measurably worse today than when governments signed the 2030 Agenda. The systems meant to hold governments accountable are themselves weakening.

What is actually working

The UN report identifies genuine progress in five areas:

• Mobile broadband (SDG 9) now reaches the majority of the global population; 5G covers 51 percent.
• Access to electricity (SDG 7) rose from 84 percent in 2015 to 91.7 percent in 2023. 45 countries achieved universal access.
• Under-5 mortality and neonatal mortality (SDG 3) continue to decline.
• Renewable energy is projected to surpass coal as the primary electricity source in 2025.

These successes demonstrate that progress is possible when governments prioritize and invest. The failures in other areas are not inevitable — they are choices.

Why this matters

169 targets. 193 countries. 10 years. Trillions of dollars in government budgets.

The data is not hidden. It is published by the governments themselves, through the organizations they created and fund — the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the World Bank, the FAO, the ILO.

The promises are not disputed. They are documented in signed international agreements, publicly available on UN databases, written in the governments' own words.

The only thing that has been missing is a single place where anyone — any citizen, any researcher, any journalist — can see the promise next to the result and verify it for themselves.

That is what Sworn does. Explore your country's Sworn Score →

Sources

Every figure in this article is taken directly from the following primary documents:

1. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025. July 2025. unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2025
2. Sachs, J.D., Lafortune, G., Fuller, G., Iablonovski, G. Sustainable Development Report 2025: Financing Sustainable Development to 2030 and Mid-Century. UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). June 2025. sdgtransformationcenter.org
3. FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP, WHO. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2025 (SOFI 2025). July 2025. fao.org/publications
4. WHO / UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme. Progress on Household Drinking Water and Sanitation 2000–2024: Special Focus on Inequalities. August 2025. who.int/publications
5. Transparency International. Corruption Perceptions Index. transparency.org/cpi
6. Reporters Without Borders. World Press Freedom Index. rsf.org

Sworn tracks official government promises against verified outcomes for every country with publicly available data. Every data point is sourced exclusively from official international organizations. Explore your country at sworndata.org.