UN Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025

• 17 Jul 2025

On 14th July 2025, the United Nations released its Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025, revealing that global progress on the 2030 Agenda has stalled or regressed for over a third of targets, posing a serious threat to meeting the goals on time.

Key Points

• Alarming Setbacks: 35% of measurable targets under 14 of 17 SDGs are stagnant or reversing.
• Critical Goals Hit Hard: Zero Hunger (SDG2), Quality Education (SDG4), Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG6), Decent Work (SDG8), and Reduced Inequalities (SDG10) show 50–57% of targets backsliding.
• Worsening Food Insecurity: SDG2 is most at risk — global hunger remains high, affecting 713–757 million people in 2023 (9.1% of population), up from 7.5% in 2019.
• Regional Hunger Trends: Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest hunger rate (23.2%), while Southern Asia has the highest number of undernourished people (281 million).
• Rising Food Prices: 50% of countries saw elevated food costs in 2023; inflation hit Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Asia hardest.
• Poverty & Water Access: Over 800 million people remain in extreme poverty. In 2024, 2.2 billion lacked safe drinking water, 3.4 billion had no sanitation access, and 1.7 billion lacked basic hygiene.