Inês Pereira, Margarita Robaina
ABSTRACT Despite the growing policy relevance of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within the European Union, significant uncertainties remain regarding the extent to which European countries perform unevenly across different dimensions of sustainable development and whether higher levels of economic development necessarily translate into better SDG outcomes. This study provides a quantitative, cross‐country assessment of SDG achievement in Europe, offering a novel composite indicator (SDGI) that integrates six key dimensions: education, health, services, employment, equality, and environment. The analysis focuses on 25 European countries selected for their diversity in economic development, regional contexts, and data availability, allowing a systematic comparison of SDG performance across the continent. Using Principal Component Analysis (PCA), we construct the SDGI for 2020 and examine its relationship with GDP per capita. Results reveal substantial disparities, with Northern and Western countries outperforming Central and Eastern European countries. Environment, equality, and education are the most influential and unevenly distributed dimensions, while services and employment contribute less to overall performance. Countries with lower SDGI values are particularly constrained by weaknesses in services and equality. A positive relationship between SDG achievement and GDP per capita is observed, suggesting complementarities rather than trade‐offs between sustainable development and economic growth. These findings underscore the scientific contribution of systematically linking SDG performance with economic development in Europe, identifying critical dimensions and regional disparities, and providing actionable guidance for policy interventions.