Frequently asked questions
SDGs in an EU context
A scoreboard of around 100 indicators is the maximum that is manageable and meaningful for users.
The 100 EU SDG indicators are equally distributed among the 17 goals to ensure a balance between the four dimensions of sustainability
- environmental
- economic
- social
- institutional
In addition to the EU SDG indicator set, the European Commission provides sector-specific indicator sets, for example on biodiversity or zero pollution, which present a more complete picture on sustainability.
Eurostat uses EU SDG indicators to monitor progress towards the SD goals and selects data with the best possible statistical quality and policy relevance. While data from research, businesses or citizen science are often useful to answer specific questions, they are not always suitable to monitor progress. For example, time series may be too short and not comparable over time.
However, external data play a key role in the EU SDG indicators set. Around one third of indicators comes from external sources, such as the European Environment Agency (EEA), the Joint Research Centre (JRC), and from citizen science.
The EU SDG monitoring report is published usually published in May, as a part of the EU SDG monitoring package. It includes an updated set of the EU SDG indicators. At the same time, the following products are published:
- EU SDG monitoring brochure, which is a short summary of the report
- visualisation tool ‘SDGs & me’ to help you understand what the 17 SDGs are about and explore the situation in your country compared to others
- visualisation tool ‘Progress of SDGs in the EU’ which gives a quick overview of the current progress towards each of the SDGs
- visualisation tool ‘SDG country overview’ to compare the country’s progress to the EU average
- Statistics Explained articles
The data cut-off date for the annual report is usually at the beginning of April. Many SDG indicators on the Eurostat website are updated automatically throughout the year following the update of the source dataset.
Reference to the source data is provided in the metadata file attached to each of the EU SDG indicators. Please look for this icon in the database.
The easiest way to monitor your country’s progress would be to use one of our visualisation tools:
Assessment method
The assessment method considers whether an indicator has moved towards or away from the sustainable development objective, as well as the speed of this movement. The method focuses on developments over time and not on the sustainability of the status.
In case of existing quantitative targets set within the political process, Eurostat monitors the trends for each indicator and compares them against theoretical trends necessary to reach the target. However, this approach is only possible for a limited number of indicators, where an explicit quantified and measurable target exists for the EU. For a detailed description of the calculation method, please consult the page on Methodology.
Firstly, Eurostat calculates a score for each indicator, reflecting its short-term assessment over the past five years. Secondly, Eurostat calculates a simple average of the scores of the individual indicators, including the multi-purpose indicators, for each goal. Eurostat makes an overall goal level assessment for a SDG if 75% of the indicators of the goal can be evaluated.
Spillover effects
It is important to recognise the spillover effects, because they influence how the world as a whole achieves the SDGs. Therefore, Eurostat shows positive and negative spillover effects as a result of EU consumption. Imports into the EU of products produced elsewhere can generate positive and negative effects for the environment and economy of the producing countries, for example by creating value added or triggering land use changes.
The 2021 report quantified several of these spillover effects relating to consumption, which were further improved in the subsequent report. Measuring consumption-induced spillover effects is a complex and data-intensive exercise, requiring data on direct cross-border flows (such as imports and exports) and indirect cross-border flows (socio-economic and environmental impacts of specific products and sectors throughout the entire supply chain). Many of these indirect impacts cannot be directly observed and therefore quantifying them requires making assumptions and model-based estimates.
Alignment with UN level
The UN Agenda 2030 document has foreseen different levels of SDG monitoring from the start. Therefore, in addition to the global level, we also have regional, national and thematic SDG monitoring.
The EU SDG indicator set is aligned as far as appropriate with the UN list of global indicators. Around two thirds of the EU indicators are aligned with the UN list. However, the UN indicators are selected for global level reporting and are therefore not always relevant in an EU context.
The EU SDG indicators have strong links with EU policy initiatives. For example, with regard to SDG 2 ‘Zero hunger’ the EU focuses more on environmentally sustainable agriculture compared to the global level.
There are deviations in all of the 17 SDGs. The 2 main reasons for this are:
- Several of the UN indicators need to be adapted to the EU’s situation, such as the number of people living below $1.25 per day as a measure of poverty.
- The EU SDG indicators monitor EU policies, e.g. in SDG 4, we use benchmarks from the European Education Area.
The desire for alignment with the UN list needs to be balanced with these 2 requirements.