Information on data
What are the sustainable development goals (SDGs)?
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their 169 targets provide a worldwide policy framework towards ending all forms of poverty, fighting inequalities and tackling climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind. These aspects are at the heart of the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
What is the EU answer to the SDGs?
The Commission has focused on delivering concrete actions that will bring tangible progress in the areas of the SDGs. For more information, please consult the webpage of the European Commission 'EU holistic approach to sustainable development’.
What is Eurostat's role?
Eurostat regularly monitors progress towards the SDGs in an EU context. It coordinate the development of the EU SDG indicator set and keeps it up to date. It also publishes regular monitoring reports on the progress towards the SDGs.
The EU indicator set comprises 102 indicators that are structured along the 17 SDGs and each goal has 6 indicators that are exclusively attributed to it. 34 of the 102 indicators are multipurpose, meaning they are used to monitor more than one SDG. All indicators are grouped in sub-themes to underline interlinkages and highlight different aspects of each SDG. The current set of indicators is available in this Excel file.
To find out more about the SDGs in an EU context and the results of Eurostat's monitoring, please consult the pages on key findings and indicators in this section.
How does Eurostat monitor progress towards the SDGs in the EU?
The Communication foresees regular monitoring of progress towards the SDGs in an EU context. The most recent of these regular monitoring exercises is the Eurostat publication Sustainable Development in the European Union – Monitoring report on progress towards the SDGs in an EU context – 2023 edition. It focusses on aspects of the SDGs that are relevant from an EU perspective. It does not assess EU progress towards the 169 targets of the 2030 Agenda.
The report provides a first statistical assessment of short-term trends in the EU in relation to the SDGs for the past five years, and – whenever data availability allows – the long-term trend for the past 15 years.
The indicator trends are described using quantitative rules. The progress of indicators with quantitative EU targets is examined in relation to those targets. This applies to 22 of the 100 indicators, mainly those related to environment, agriculture, energy, education, poverty, and employment. All other indicators are evaluated based on the direction and rate of change. The indicator trends are presented visually by arrows. The methodology applied is explained in detail in the monitoring report.
The monitoring report builds on the EU SDG indicator set. These 100 indicators have strong links with the above-mentioned Communication and the EU policy initiatives in the document ‘Key European action supporting the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development’.
Annual EU SDG indicator review
The EU SDG indicator set is subject to annual reviews to incorporate indicators from new data sources and to consider new targets in line with EU priorities, such as the European Green Deal and other initiatives. In preparation of the EU SDG monitoring report 2024, the indicator set was reviewed between September 2023 and January 2024. The result of the review in preparation of the 2024 edition of the EU SDG monitoring report describes the process and presents the results of the review.
The new EU SDG indicator set 2024 will be available in Eurostat's database on SDG along with the release of the EU SDG monitoring report for 2024. The current and previous versions of the indicator set are also available in Excel format for the years 2023 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, and 2017.
Further reading
Please consult our webpage with frequently asked questions on the SDGs.